The Christianity Of Persecution Of The Early Church

For Christians, the persecution of the early church is generally accepted as fact. So much so that we rarely seem to consider the possibility that this is not the case. The martyrdom of saints for their faith is taken for granted as historically accurate. Furthermore, we admire them, looking up to the strength of their faith during the most challenging of times. But are we believing in a false history? Are we taking the truth of Christian persecution for granted when it is, in fact, not true at all? And, finally, are we placing too much significance on early Christian martyrs, thinking that they demonstrate far more than they are able? According to Candida Moss, the answer to all three of these questions is, yes. In her book, The Myth of Persecution, she argues that the church has significantly overemphasized the extent to which early Christians were martyred. She also claims that Christians expect a good deal more from what Christian martyrdom establishes than we can actually gain. To begin, it will be helpful to define what Moss means by ‘martyrdom.’ Moss offers a two part definition for martyrdom. First, â€Å"individuals have a choice to either live or die, and (2) they prefer to die, because they value either a way of life, a law, a person, or a principle more highly than their own life.†1 McDowell’s definition is similar, but with a few subtle differences. He writes of it as involving death for confession of the Christian faith. I should note that this understanding ofShow MoreRelatedHow Christianity Changed Between The First Century And Its Legalization1036 Words   |  5 PagesHow Christianity changed between the first century and its legalization in the fourth century Christianity had to evolve and adapt over the centuries in order to survive. Christianity had to merge with the cultures and traditions of other religions. It took four centuries for Christianity to become legal. In the year 30, Christianity mainly consisted of Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah. The belief that Jesus was a savoir was the break from Judaism. Jesus was appealing to people becauseRead MoreChristianity And Its Impact On The Development Of Christianity1283 Words   |  6 PagesChristianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. â€Å"When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religionRead MoreChristian Horbury : Early Christian Persecutions1490 Words   |  6 Pagessurmised about early Christian persecutions, and I largely agree with this view. The Jews sometimes persecuted the e arly Christians because their beliefs clashed and this caused friction between the two religions. As well as this ‘incompatibility’ between the two faiths, Donatism also developed as a separate sect of Christianity within the orthodox church and a lot of persecution and hate was directed towards the early Christians. However, without this I do not believe that Christianity would have developedRead More A Critical Interpretation of Hans Kung?s Historical Analysis of the Development of the Hierarchical Church1390 Words   |  6 PagesKung’s Historical Analysis of the Development of the Hierarchical Church nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The beginnings of the Christian church are shrouded in mystery. With the lack of evidence about that time in history, it is hard to draw conclusions of any type. However, the historical analyst, Hans Kung, has written a book to shed some light on the subject. In this book, Kung discusses his opinion on the development of the early church, and its hierarchical structure. In the following paper, I willRead MoreChurch History : A Important Class1277 Words   |  6 PagesChurch history is a very important class, especially to us as Christians. When we look back at the history of the church we are able to see how God worked in the formation of the church, as we know it today. In Hebrews 13:7 it reads, â€Å"Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.† By learning the good things in history we are able to imitate and live out the gospel the way that God would have us to l ive. Church historyRead MoreThe Persecution Of The Church1700 Words   |  7 Pagesthan sixty countries (â€Å"About Christian Persecution†). Persecution is a program or campaign to exterminate, drive away, or subjugate a people because of their religion, race, or beliefs (â€Å"Persecution†). Even though believers face many struggles now and then, the persecution of the church is causing the church to become stronger through the hardships. Since the time of Jesus, Christians have been tempered in the fires of persecution. In the newly formed early church, many Christians suffered because ofRead MoreThe Between Pliny And Trajan976 Words   |  4 PagesAs the church moves into the second century, authorities begin to recognize Christianity distinct from Judaism. With this new distinction, persecution also increases. Society viewed Jews who lived in communities throughout the Roman Empire (Diaspora Judaism) as monotheistic. This standing provided Jews with political and societal exemptions from pagan worship and military service. As Christianity grew distinct from Judaism, these exemptions did not apply to this new movement whom many in societyRead MoreChristianity And The Roman Empire979 Words   |  4 Pageswere polytheists believed in many Gods, they had the God of sun, moon, rain, etc†¦ But it was after the third century when Christianity started to form part and get a place in the Roman Empire. Christianity m ade a huge impact in Rome. Also, followers of this religion suffered from emperor’s thoughts and conclusion about Christianity. Furthermore, the Christians were in persecution for many years; however, after the emperor Constantine with the constantinian dynasty, everything seems to be effectiveRead MoreThe Smyrna Church, Ad 100-300 Essay1456 Words   |  6 Pages (AD 70– ¬156) – The Smyrna Church, AD 100–300 A Brief Biography of Polycarp Born about AD 70, Polycarp was an apostolic father known from Smyrna. Not much is recorded about his younger life, but according to tradition, he was mentored by the Apostle John. Later, Polycarp became the bishop of Smyrna which is in modern-day Turkey. His only known surviving writing was an epistle to the church at Philippi which revealed that he had little formal education and evidenced his humility and straightforwardnessRead MorePaul Of Tarsus : A Christian Perspective Essay1149 Words   |  5 PagesPaul of Tarsus was not one of the original twelve apostles, but apparently he had an epiphany while traveling to Damascus and became a Christian. Even more than that, Paul founded many of the tenets of Christianity and transformed it into a universal religion. Because of Paul, Christianity wasn t limited to Judaism, but became a Greco-Roman religion, open to all. He made Jesus divine, born of a Virgin, descended from the House of David, laid the basis for Original Sin, redefined t he definition of

Essay On Robert Frost - 1194 Words

Robert Frosts Life and Accomplishments â€Å"Dont ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.† What a great quote by Robert Lee Frost, and there remain many of more that he wrote. Robert Frost wrote many of his best poems on several levels of meaning. He was one of best and most loved and respected poets. He did a great job capturing the hearts of his audience with his natural imagery and ability to use many metaphors to reveal the realism that he was trying to create. However, Robert Frost not only inspired people with his many quotes but even more so with the vast amount of poems and plays he wrote throughout his life. According to Bloom’s Literature Database born in San Francisco on March 26th, 1874, his father, journalist†¦show more content†¦His style of writing being ordinary made it easier for many people to relate to his work. Frost’s works were and still are particularly well liked by ordinary readers because his works are easy to read and, on the surface, easy to understand. In the book A Boy’s Will, Frost writes poems of hope and beauty. Love and a Question, illustrates the optimistic view of a bridegroom trying to help a poor man. He thinks that he should help him, but not knowing if he can. His heart shows compassion but his minds shows logic. The conclusion of this poem shows not true ending, but leaves the reader in a state of imagining what was to happen to the poor man. Frost’s poem, â€Å"Nothing Gold Can Stay† is a very easy and brief read, but it provokes the mind to think about the good things in life in a different way. Upon first reading this poem, it seems like Frost is just writing about how nature’s beauty is always changing. If looked into more, though, it can be interpreted as relating to life. Frost used nature’s constant shift in seasons as a symbol that nothing good in life will stay forever. This poem was his advices to his readers, letting those who cling to things know that nothing is permanent and that they have to learn to adjust to the variety of events that could happen. TheShow MoreRelatedEssay on Robert Frost1248 Words   |  5 Pages Robert Frost   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Robert Frost, an Americian poet of the late 19th century, used nature in many of his writings. This paper will discuss the thought process of Frost during his writings, the many tools which he used, and provide two examples of his works.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Robert Frost was born in San Franciso on March 26, 1874, but later moved to Lawrence, Massachuschusetts (after his father died) where he did most of his writing. He was a simple man who taught, worked in a mill, was a reporter, wasRead MoreRobert Frost Essay1396 Words   |  6 PagesRobert Frost Robert Frost is one of the few twentieth century poets to receive critical acclaim and popular acceptance (Magill 728). His simplistic style appeals to the novice and expert poetry reader alike. Robert Frosts understated emotional appeal attracts readers of all literary levels. Frost develops subtly stated emotions and a clever use of imagery in his poetry. Influences on his poetry include his family, work, and other life experiences (Oxford 267). Frost also works to developRead MoreEssay Biography of Robert Frost1886 Words   |  8 Pages â€Å"Rightly or wrongly, Robert Frost has achieved a reputation as a poet of nature†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Gerber 155). Yes, Frost does use imagery of nature in his poems, but to say he is a â€Å"nature poet† is distorting his poetry by overlooking the poem’s darker complexions (Gerber 155). An aspect of his poems that is frequently overlooked is the main character’s internal conflict. In â€Å"The Road Not Taken† and â€Å"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening† characters are faced with an inner conflict metaphorically describedRead More Critique of Robert Frost Essays928 Words   |  4 Pages Marion Montgomery, â€Å"Robert Frost and His Use of Barriers: Man vs. Nature Toward God,† Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962. Reprinted by permission of The South Atlantic Quarterly. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Robert Frost is considered by the casual reader to be a poet of nature like that of a Wordsworth. In a sense, his poetry is about nature, yet with strong underlying tones of the drama of man in nature. Frost himself stated, â€Å"I guess I’m not a nature poet,† â€Å" I have only writtenRead More Robert Frost Essay873 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"Good fences makes good neighbors,† is a small portion from the Mending Wall written by one of modern times most proficient writers, Robert Frost. Two of the critical articles I examined were quite helpful in gaining a better understanding of the â€Å"Mending Wall† and also of Robert Frost’s poetry. The Gale Research shows the best and most effective understanding of the â€Å"Mending Wall,† mainly because it deals specifically with that poem. It basically states that the poem is built around two attitudesRead More Robert Frost Essay559 Words   |  3 Pages Robert Frost nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Robert Lee Frost, was one of America’s leading 20th Century poets, and a four time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Frost did not receive these recognitions until his later years when his poetic brilliance was finally recognized. â€Å"Frost was a pioneer in the interplay of rhythm and meter†( Waggoner 1). Frost’s brilliance was contributed by many things; including his life, career, and literary works. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Robert Frost was born on MarchRead More Robert Frost Essay612 Words   |  3 Pagesnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;â€Å"Nature is always hinting at us. It hints over and over again. And suddenly we take the hint.† This quote was taken from Robert Frost and demonstrates his feelings toward nature. Robert Frost is a well known American poet who draws on nature as the subject of his poems. There are three main things that account for Robert Frost’s poetry. In his poems, he uses familiar subjects, like nature, people doing everyday things and simple language to express his thoughts. His poemsRead MoreRobert Frost Essay814 Words   |  4 Pages Robert Frost successfully taken readers imagination on a journey through the wintertime with his poems quot;Desert Placesquot; and quot;Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.quot; Frosts New England background in these two poems reflect the beautiful scenery that is present in our part of the country. Even though t hese poems both have winter settings they contain completely different tones. One poem has a feeling of a depressing loneliness, and the other of feeling welcome. The poems show howRead MoreEssay on Robert Frost1443 Words   |  6 Pages Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874 and died in Boston on January 29, 1963. Frost was considered to be one of America’s leading 20th century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He was an essentially pastoral poet who was often associated with rural New England. Frost wrote poems of a philosophical region. His poems were traditional but he often said as a dig at his archrival Carl Sandburg, that â€Å"he would soon play tennis without a net as write free verseRead MoreRobert Frost Essay1314 Words   |  6 PagesRobert Frost was a very successful author who wrote many award winning poems. Frost’s career in poetry took some time, but he eventually reached his goal of becoming a popular poet. Frost has had a very successful life as an author, but that wasn’t until he was noticed. Frost has won four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and various other awards. Robert Frost was world renowned and even attended John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. Frost wasn’t noticed until he was nearly 40 years old, but he kept working towards

Weddings Events and More E-Business Plan Free Essays

string(63) " incurring larger travel expenses as well as payroll increase\." Weddings, Events, Beyond E-Business Plan Mary Weathersby Capella University May 15, 2011 I. Company Description Weddings Events Beyond opened our doors in May of 2002 as a partnership. We have been continually expanding and now are a large firm with six full time planners, six assistants, four full time Accounting and Finance employees, two full time Human Resources employees, my partner, and myself. We will write a custom essay sample on Weddings Events and More E-Business Plan or any similar topic only for you Order Now At this time we have a website that gives examples of our event planning capabilities with some pictures of events we have planned. We have decided to take the next step and implement a more advanced site where our customers can see the stages of their event as it is planned. It is our goal to allow the customer to log into our site at anytime and see what the plans for their event are and request changes if it is their wish. We would also like to implement a Secure Socket Layer so that our customers can pay their account on-line. Making our company more accessible through use of the Internet will help us to expand to the outlying areas that before now were more difficult to reach. The business model that Weddings Events Beyond is striving to become with the Internet site is that of a â€Å"multi-channel merchant† or â€Å"bricks and clicks† merchant. This is the type of firm that has both a physical store, as the primary channel of income, and is introducing an online service. (Laudon Traver 2010 p. 595) II. Marketing Plan Internet marketing is a little bit more complex than regular marketing in that we as a firm will have to show that we have the capability to develop a more positive and long term relationship with our customers. Laudon Traver 2010 p. 362) We must develop a marketing plan which brings in all ranges on new customers from the bride and groom and their guests all the way to the business whose events we will be planning. We will be planning to show the consumer our unique qualities and capabilities such as the fact that every step of the planning of their event will be available for them to view on our site. This will require ope ning an account for each customer where they can log on to receive the most up to date work done on their event planning. This will also allow them to request changes until the closing date of their event. The following categories will be included in our marketing plan: A. Target Audience 1. Customer characteristics: We as a firm will be targeting the bride, the groom, and their families for the weddings and for the events we will be targeting the business community and upper to middle class families who normally do not have the time to plan and organize their special events. 2. Age demographic: Will be adults from the 20-50 year range. 3. Customer geographic: At this time we service only the state of Arizona. We travel all over the state as needed by where the event is being held. After implementation of e-business we will be targeting the states of California and Nevada as well. Eventually with expansion we plan to cover major cities across the US. (Laudon Traver 2010 p. 345 – p. 367) B. SWOT analysis (strengths weakness opportunities threats) 1. Strengths: One of the main strengths we possess is that we are one of only four companies in our area that plans Weddings and Events. We will be the first among the four that will be making a more immediate Internet presence. Making use of our services through the Internet will make us more accessible and give us a wider reach for customer than any other firm. We are the most established firm having been in the business making a name for ourselves for the longest period of time. Our planners have at least an associate’s degree in planning. They have been planners for a minimum of three years and have strong customer service skills. 2. Weakness: At this time we have no planners trained in e-business as will be take approximately four weeks to accomplish. We are right now in only the state of Arizona, but with the implementation of our e-business we plan to expand to cover California and Nevada. In order to do this we will need more planners and assistants. Hiring new people means we need to start training in all areas of our business including e-business models. This training will take time and resources to accomplish. We will also begin competing with other firms located in California and Nevada. These competitors will be listed in the competitive analysis portion of this plan. 3. Opportunities: We are convinced that the opportunity for the firm with the implementation of an e-business presence is great. Being the first firm to make ourselves more accessible to people on the go gives us a greater advantage over our competitors. The implementation of our e-business will allow us to reach outside of Arizona. This will eventually help in leading to country wide expansion. We will be able to advertise our business on affiliate sites such as Invitation sites, bridal dress sites, catering sites, and bridal registry sites. With the implementation of Internet marketing through ads, social networking, and search engine optimization we will be able to open up a market that was before now closed to us. 4. Threats: In becoming an e-business we will be implementing both a CRM plan and an ERP plan. We will now be competing with other Event Planners through Internet channels. Occasions, is just one of the other firms that we will be competing with. This firm is introducing a software program that helps the customer plan their own special event. We will need to convince these customers that using our firm will give them better results and free up their valuable time. We will be incurring larger travel expenses as well as payroll increase. You read "Weddings Events and More E-Business Plan" in category "Papers" If our e-business plan does not show a profit in the next 24-36 months we could lose both the e-business and our â€Å"bricks and mortar† store. We would have a harder time compensating for the losses. The price of implementing these new e-business models will be substantial and if our new Internet site does not bring in the expected increase in business it would be very hard to pay off these expenses. We will need to make sure that we are optimizing our Implementation of the Website through, search engine keywords and other Internet sites that would bring the consumer back to our site with as few clicks as possible. To decrease the threat of our competitors we will need to stay on our toes and keep our website updated as well as making sure that we are ready for anything. C. Competitive analysis: The leading competitors in our field are: TLC Wedding Consultants, which is at this time a two man operation which deals exclusively with weddings and holy communions. Occasions, this is a newly formed Event planner whose main ervice is a software program that helps the customer to plan their own events. Specialty Events, this is a three party team that organizes business events exclusively. This company plans seminars and company parties. They have not at this time branched out to work any other events. Competitors brought in to play by our expansion into an e-business will include new b usiness in Nevada and California. Weddings by Nancy, is a firm out of Nevada who have been around approximately three years. They have a site that shows pictures of weddings they have planned and gives contact information for their store. At this time they are strictly a â€Å"bricks and mortar† firm. Their information website is ranked fourth in the search engine ranking. Events for Every Occasion is out of Nevada. They have three trained planners. Their website gives information about the types of events they plan as well as pictures and has reviews from previous customers. This site is currently ranked second in search engine results. Anywhere Anytime Events is a full service firm of three planners working in California. This firm has no website at this time. They do have newspaper and television ads and a client base of about six regular firms that they plan events for. California Event Planners is full service firm with a website that has customer reviews, photos, and contact information. They ask for permission to e-mail visitors to their site, they are at this time ranked number one in search engine results. This is the site we need to bump and take over in search engine results. Our firm, Weddings Events Beyond, is the only full service planner in a 100 mile area. We are the largest firm and will be the first to become a major presence on the Internet offering to allow customers access to their planning results 24 hours a day. D. Marketing Strategy 1. Promotion: We will be promoting our firm through Social Networking on both Facebook. com and MySpace. com. It is our intention to put our name and services on the websites that reach the largest population possible through as many internet sites as possible. Social networks are one of the most used ways of communication with others. Facebook. com logged over 300 million members worldwide in September of 2009 and had 92 million unique visitors while MySpace. com logged 130 million members worldwide with over 64 million unique visitors. (Laudon Traver 2010 p. 21) Promoting our name and services on these two social networks would help us reach a significantly larger audience that any of our competitors. We will also be using the services of Search Engine Optimization to help us use the right key words to make sure we are accessible to the customers looking for wedding and event planners. In order for the customer to find us using a search on the Internet we need t o be able to be located by search engines. Through the use of Search Engine Optimization we will know the appropriate terms for use in order to be more easily found. Using this service will also help to ensure that we are linked to other sites that will put us closer to the top of search results. (SEOmoz) 2. Advertising: We will be adding a new form of advertising to help us with moving into the new e-business market. In addition to our usual advertising of yellow page and newspaper ads we will also begin Internet marketing. We will be using two forms of Internet marketing: â€Å"Viral Marketing† which is the â€Å"process of getting customers to pass along a company’s marketing message to friends, family, and colleagues, which is the online version of word of mouth. (Laudon Traver 2010 p. 390) This type will help get our name out there faster than in the real world. The second form of Internet advertising we will be using is that of â€Å"direct e-mail marketing†. This type of marketing is highly effective. We will be sending e-mails to a group of Internet users who have shown interest in our services at one time or anothe r. With this kind of advertising we would send out regular e-mails to people who have pulled up our website and asked to receive e-mails from us. The customer would then have to â€Å"opt-out† to stop receiving the e-mails. (Laudon Traver 2010 p. 43) This form of advertising is a mix of both on-line and off-line marketing since we will be using both the printed off-line version as well as having Internet advertising. 3. Public relations: Both through word of mouth and viral marketing we will be working on our public image helping to increase our public relations. As long as we stay true to our word and keep our customers happy this should not be a problem. III. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Customer relationship management (CRM) is the repository of customer information it will record and save all contacts a customer or prospective customer makes with our firm. This plan will also generate the customers profile from what they initially gave us upon entering our site through what categories they view concerning interest in types of events. There will also b e features that are possible for the event. (Laudon Traver 2010 p356) This is how we will know what our customer is interested in and give a general idea of their price limitations so that an initial plan can begin being implemented. The touch points that we will be using are: telephone network, Internet, mail fax, staff contact, and our sales force. As part of our Internet touch point we will be asking visitors to our site for personal information and permission to e-mail them. We will be collecting data through sites that deal with all aspects of weddings and other events as well as sites that deal with bridal registry sites, incitation engraving sites, and visits to our facebook and MySpace sites. 1. Map of customers relationship with the firm. This will let us know how we got this customer as well as this customer’s preferences and if they refer any new customers. We will also be keeping a log of emails and phone conversations with customers throughout the planning of their event. . Product and usage summary. This will let us know which of our services each customer is looking for and how often they return to us to help plan other events. 3. Profitability measures. This will let us know how well our Internet advertising is doing and if it is bringing in new customers. 4. Contact history. This will be summarizing the cu stomers contact with the firm across delivery channels such as Internet and hard copy advertising. 5. E-mail company responses. This will help us to know how our email advertising is doing and how many people have come to our site and signed up for email from us. IV. Architecture plan Weddings Events Beyond will require a multi-tier architecture plan. Since we already have a web page which lists our services and how to contact us we will need to build on this site to include, customer contact information, plans for events, security for customer payment of services, email integration which will allow customers to correspond with their planner, and a section that will allow employees to communicate with each other concerning finance, human resources, and management communication within the firm. This will require us to outsource to another company to produce the necessary hardware components. We will be implementing the following components: 1. An e-commerce website that will be hosted by NetSuite. com allowing us to scale our business with an application that ties the business together across E-commerce, Marketing, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relations Management, Financials, and Human Resources. This website will expanded to help track customer contact, customer event plans, customer e-mail capabilities, a Secure Socket Layer for customer payments, and employee communication capabilities. . New staff that will be in charge of maintaining this system as well as training staff on the new system. At this time we estimate that we will need two to three new employees that will do this. 3. New equipment and software to facilitate e-business. The new equipment will be computer systems that will be networked and implemented with the modules for our e-business expansion. The software will also be for working with all NetSuite models including ERP, CRM, and SCM, Competitive Vision, our competitive tracking firm, and BPIR our new benchmarking partners. V. Enterprise Resource Plan (ERP) The ERP plan that we will be implementing will make access to financial data and all aspects of the Human Resources Department easier for our staff. This will allow the staff to run credit information on prospective clients as well as work up account information so our finance department can accurately prepare invoices, spreadsheets, and all other accounting data. This will also allow planners to input their own expense reports for quicker calculations. The Human Resources applications of the new system will make it easier for staff to check their time sheets, medical coverage, 401k, vacation and sick day’s status, and commission status. This should cut down on the amount of time needed by that department to do this for each staff member. The implementation of these two systems will also make it easier for management to review all of this data without the need of printing multiple reports freeing up the time needed for this from all departments. VI. Supply Chain Management (SCM) The scope of our SCM needs at this time is limited to information and inancials. We will be working with NetSuite in this area as well, to maintain integrity with our other systems. We are a service organization that helps our customers decide and plan the aspects of their special event. We work closely with caterers, floral designers, Churches and reception halls. We do not make deposits or pay for any of these things. However, we do keep tabs on wha t stage of planning these services are at, in order to keep the customer up to date but at the same time not bogged down by all these companies calling them. (Laudon Traver 2010 p. 77 1. Information chain: We will need to maintain customer information so that we can keep up to date information on our site for each customer. The information we will need concerning the customer is: A. Name B. Billing address C. Telephone number D. E-mail address E. Vender Preferences (so we know who we will be working with) 2. Vender information chain: We will also need to maintain information on all the vendors that we work with as well as full descriptions of what each vendor offers. The information we need from each vendor is: A. Name B. Address C. E-mail or website D. Telephone number We need to have this vendor information so that the customer knows what each one offers and can save the time it takes to call around looking for the right vendor. This will help to narrow the choices thus making it easier on the customer. The knowledge of what each vendor offers is crucial in helping to save time for our customers. We would also like to add links for the different vendors to our site so that the customer can shop around from our site in as few clicks as possible. In return the venders would also have a link to our site posted on theirs. 3. Financial flow: For this area we will need to make it possible to maintain the customer’s credit card number and verification code. This will also make it possible to help our customer even further by allowing us to keep records of what the customer wants from each vendor and verify payments have been made. VII. Competitive Tracking (Knowledge Management) We have found that there is a need to implement a program for competitive tracking in order to better understand our business environment. The information that will be gained from a competitive tracking system will help us in making key business decisions for the entire firm. In order for us to remain competitive with other planning firms we need to understand what they are doing, (Competitive Vision 2011) We have decided that it would serve our interests best at this time to get a software program through Competitive Vision. This program is a web based competitive intelligence solution offering as easy way to collect, organize, and evaluate competitive information. Some of the benefits of implementing this software would be: * Better understanding of our competitive landscape * Enhancing our strategic planning process * Facilitating more effective information sharing among our shareholders * Lowering costs related to the competitive intelligence effort. Through this software we will be able to view competitive information in an SWOT business model. We will be able to create industry and competitor profiles. The competitive tracking information will be consolidated for easier understanding and be managed in real time. The cost of this software program will be $ 500. 0 per month for the first five users. As we continue to expand into other cities across the United States we will be able to expand our user base at which time our monthly fee would go up to compensate for those additions. Implementing this competitive Intelligence software will take the guesswork out of finding out what our competitors are doing. VIII Benchmarking. Benchmarking will be in partnership with BPIR (Business Performance Improvement Resource) which is a firm that helps in the process of finding how to improve our company’s performance standards and researches the performance standards of our competition. We want to keep a customer service rating of 100% satisfaction and a performance rating of 95% and higher. This is our current level as we make the plans for implementing our e-business. The changes that are going to be happening over the next 8-12 months should no cost us the satisfaction of our customers. Through BPIR we will be conducting a quarterly review in the following areas: 1. Best Practices which are the practices that are known to produce the highest results. 2. Performance Measures which is a periodic review to see whether our staff is performing at their peak. 3. Self Assessment which is an assessment each employee takes showing how well they think they are doing 4. Competitor Analysis which is a system that helps to show how our competitors are doing and what level their benchmarking is at. 5. Website reviews which is how we will determine how effective our website is and where we rank in search results. This will help us to make sure that we are able to continue being the first choice of our prospective customers. IX. Conclusion. As you can see there are quite a few things that will be changing once we break into the world of e-business. We are looking forward to the time when this implementation and training process are completed. As it is we have a long hard road ahead of us. But, taking our â€Å"bricks and mortar† firm to a â€Å"bricks and clicks† firm will be step in the direction of progress which every firm must go through eventually. This is a large step but one we must take if we are to stay ahead of our competitors. This type of business model fall under the description of an e-tailer, meaning we have a regular firm with an Internet website that handles the Internet side of our business. Our website will be based on a sales revenue model. (Laudon Traver 2010 p. 8 70) The implementation plan we have outlined will have an economic impact on the business because the initial cost of implementing the ERP, SCM, and CRM will be expensive. We estimate total cost of core services to be in the price range of $ 100,000 dollars. This includes the website development and hosting. The cost of competitive tracking and benchmarking will be separate as well as the man hours that it will take our people to become trained. The cost of competitive tracking will be $500 dollars per month through Competitive Vision. The benchmarking will be approximately $500 dollars through BPIR ever quarter. The risks we take in this are that we would be putting all this money out to become an e-business and there are never any guarantees that we will be successful. By implementing our e-business we will be mortgaging our current business model but, this would be the case with any kind of expansion process. The benefits of this plan are that we would be able to reach a larger customer base and begin servicing California and Nevada before moving into those areas full scale with a new store and new employees. Future forces that would affect us would be if any of our competitors also implement this same idea. We are looking at this happening in the next five years but we plan to be well ahead of the game by that time. This plan at the onset will mean more work for our management staff but once it is fully implemented and our people are fully trained they will be able to do twice as much work in half the time. This will free up more time to give our staff the necessary evaluations to verify they are doing their jobs right. As you have seen every member of the firm will need to be trained in the new systems and we will need to hire new employees who have the necessary e-business knowledge to help us succeed. The final thing we need to include here are the timelines for implementation and training. The implementation is estimated to take between six and eight months. Executive training will begin around two months before completion and be accomplished in three hour increments, three times a week for four weeks. This is so that we will be ready when full implementation is accomplished. Staff training will begin one month prior to completion and will be done in three hour increments twice a week for four weeks ending on or around the completion date. X. References Laudon, K. C. , Traver, C. G. (2010). E-commerce: business, technology, society. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall. SeOmoz. (n. d. ) The beginners guide to SEO. Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://www. guides. seomoz. org . Competitive Vision. (n. d. ) Retrieved June 1, 2011 from http://www. competitivevision. com BPIR (n. d. ) Business Performance Improvement Resource. Retrieved June 3, 2011 from http://bpir. com NetSuite (n. d. ) Retrieved on May 24, 2011 from http://www. netsuite. com How to cite Weddings Events and More E-Business Plan, Papers

Cost and Management Accounting Business Planning & Process

Question: Describe about the Cost and Management Accounting for Business Planning Process. Answer: 1. Cost and management accounting Introduction Cost and management accounting refers to the budgeting process of a business. It consists of planning about potential costs that will be occurred in future and applying best efforts to control them so as to gain efficiency. A cost accountant needs to predict expenditure of any future business project and identify the areas where it can be reduced and an efficient budget can be formed. The scope of cost accounting varies from a small business project to the overall business model. Before a project is started, a cost accountant is required to jot down all the expenses and during the project, expenditures are adhered to this plan so that the project may not get over budget. It also helps in management. After the project is completed, actual and budgeted costs are compared to identify the deviations and take corrective actions in future. Cost accounting in education industry In an education industry, cost and management accounting holds great significance since long- term expenditures comprise a major part of their costs. It is evident that long- term expenditures are the most critical ones because they are irreversible and contains huge penalty if prove to be wrong. Hence, a university must be very keen in accounting the potential costs that it will incur in coming future to deliver a particular education program to a single student. All the direct and indirect costs must be properly analysed to form a cost budget. A hypothetical situation is illustrated below (Horngren, 2009). Calculation of the cost per student of delivering a particular degree program from a universitys perspective Lets take a hypothetical situation in which a university has assigned a task to its cost accountant to assess how much will they cost in providing a post graduation degree of management field to a single student. It is also advised to consider all direct and indirect overheads. Expenses should also be classified as educational and non- educational. Besides that, university has the capacity of 800 students in masters of business administration. It has also been given that this university gets a fund for $200,000 every year by the state government to conduct research and development activities intended towards finding better and innovative ways to impart education in the country. Here is the list of different types of expenditures that are reported by the cost accountant that will be incurred next year (Greene, 2000). Educational and non- educational expenses: this category comprises of all the expenses that are incurred by the university on imparting education directly and indirectly. Universities are not only providing education, but also involve in other areas like RD, placement consultation and social welfare practices. All of these are listed under the head of non- educational expenses. But in educational expenses, we only include expenses like cost of infrastructure, furniture, basic amenities, salaries to teaching faculties, educational equipments, etc. The table below shows the description of these expenses. Direct and indirect costs: educational and non- educational expenses are further classified into direct and indirect expenses (Goossens, Rutten-van Mlken, Vlaeyen, van der Linden, 2000). Educational expenses Amount (in $) Indirect costs Cost of infrastructure (classrooms, labs, canteen, other amenities in the building) 100,000,000 (for next 20 years) Cost of furniture 800,000 (for 5 years) Cost of fixtures 200,000 (for five years) Extracurricular instruments 100,000 (for one year) Water treatment plan 700,000 (for two years) Electricity expenses 1,500,000 (for one year) Total 1,003,300,000 Direct costs Salary to faculties 2,500,000 (for one year) Laboratory equipments 500,000 (for one year) Expenses on Cultural and curricular activities 800,000 (for one year) Cost of stationary 400,000 (for one year) Total 4,200,000 Non- educational expenses Amount (in $) Indirect costs Cost of infrastructure (administration offices) 1,000,000 (for 20 years) Salary to management staff 1,500,000 (for one year) Research and development activities 200,000 (funded by government) Public welfare activities 500,000 (for one year) Placement consultation services 500,000 (for one year) Other miscellaneous overheads 100,000 (for one year) Total 3,800,000 Grand total 1,011,300,000 This total cost will be incurred on 800 students over a period of one year. However, some items are very long- term expenditures. Those should spread evenly throughout their life and the rest amount should be carried forward to next year. The cost of educational infrastructure is $100,000,000 for 20 years. For one year, it will be accounted as $100,000,000/ 20 which equal $5,000,000. The cost of furniture is $800,000 for 5 years. For one year, it accounts for $160,000. Cost of fixtures is $200,000 for 5 years. Hence, it will amount to $40,000 for this year. Water treatment plans cost for this year will be $350,000. Cost of administration infrastructure will be included up to $50,000 this year. So, total costs incurred this year would be $14,000,000 approximately. This will be divided by the total capacity of the university for this particular course. Hence, the cost of imparting education per student will be $14,000,000/ 800 which is equal to $17,500+ taxes only. However, the fees charged are quite high that constitutes the profits of the institution (Karmel, 2003). Challenges faced in such calculations Accounting has undergone many changes and up gradation in past decades. It not only includes, recording and interpreting transactions, but also helps in planning and controlling aspects of management. That is why organizations are known to have a hybrid accounting system for their operations. This will help them in getting an overall benefit of this function, but has also posed many challenges to accountant, especially in cost accounting calculations. Few of them are listed below. The major challenge faced by cost accountants is that they have to make plans for future. They do not have time to react to environmental changes, rather they have to behave pro actively to get first mover advantage and competitive edge. This calls for uncertainty and huge risks are involved (Bindl Parker, 2010). The role of accountants has changed from mere book- keepers to planners. They have to make cost and expenditure plans for the organization, which itself is a challenging task. After all, recording past transactions is quite simple than forecasting about future operations (Briers Chua, 2001). Environmental changes pose another challenge for accountants. Suppose a cost accountant has prepared an effective plan but the environment has such a drastic change that even derivative plans will not work, then the entire planning goes in vain (Gray, Owen, Adams, 1996). Organizational change or structural amendments render the plans formulated ineffective. Adhering to such conditions is again a big challenge for accountants (Ezzamel, 1994). Reliability of such calculations There are two phases to be understood in this scenario. First of all, the authenticity of the budget is analysed and checked out that whether the basis used to decide various cost factors and their approximate value is reliable or not. For example, the facets like government funding, corporate social responsibility, moral values have been indulged in the decision- making process or not. These factors will have a significant impact on the universitys cost structure and their reliability based on ethics and societal obligations. Besides that, it will also have a significant impact on the fees structure faced by the students. A profit margin over and above the total costs of a university will be declared as the prescribed amount of fees that must be charged from students. In the case study illustrated above, it is clear that the university has taken government funding into account and RD costs are not added to the total costs incurred by the organization. This shows a positive factor in the cost accounting of the institution. However, they have included the cost of public welfare in the total costs. An organization is expected to incur the expenses on corporate social responsibility out of its profits. It is not desirable that these costs are charged by the students. Hence, this is against the ethical grounds. This reduces the cost accounting reliability to be ethically correct (Onyebuchi, 2011). Besides that, the other phase of this cost and management accounting poses a question as to how much accurate these expenses are. External parties will never know if these expenses are over- estimated in the budget to manipulate profits figures and facts. This completely depends on the morality and ethical quotient of the institutions management and the cost accountant (Carroll, Linsmeier, Petroni, 2003). Topic 2 This essay has talked about corporate social responsibilities and their influence on both company and the society. Different categories of CSR activities have been discussed to know the forms of CSR. Further drivers that push businesses towards CSR activities have been analyzed and finally CSR activities of various big companies have been discussed to understand the relationship between the CSR and profit maximization. Corporate Social Responsibility Along with public sector private sector also consider societal development as their social responsibility. Private firms consider social development as one of the most essential principles of business development. The principle of corporate social responsibility is a way through which private firms contribute in societal development. Further corporate social responsibility is a way to balance the environmental, social and economic responsibilities in their operations to address the expectations of shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility is integrated in the operations of the corporation, their culture, values, strategy, decision making and reporting mechanisms. There are a few categories of CSR that many of the business firms are practicing (IISD, 2016). Environmental Efforts: One of the primary focuses of the firms through CSR activities is environment. Every business regardless of its size has large carbon footprints. Organizations take steps to reduce these carbon footprints. Removal of carbon footprints is considered beneficial for the corporation and the society as a whole. Apart from this some businesses encourage the diffusion and development of environmental friendly technologies. Ethical Labor Practices: Businesses prepare ethical code of conduct for fair treatment with the employees. This is also the part of corporate responsibility. Ethical labor practices are especially significant for the people who are working internationally. Effective abolition of child practices and elimination of all forms of compulsory and forced labor also comes under corporate responsibility of the companies. Philanthropy: Businesses donate to nationals and local charities as a practice of corporate responsibility. Businesses conduct various programs to help the local people and special communities. Volunteering: Some businesses attend social welfare event without any external force and this shows their sincerity towards the welfare of the society. Businesses do good deeds without expecting anything in return and show their concern for specific issues like education, employment, economic development, child labor, environmental etc. (Caramela, 2016). Drivers that pushes businesses towards CSR The shrinking role of government: In the past, governments had resources to deliver environmental and societal objectives but now the government resources are shrinking day by day which have forced the businesses to take initiatives voluntary. Increased customer interest: It is evident that the ethical code of companies influences the purchasing decision of customers. A recent survey conducted by Environics International reported that out of five customers more than one customer rated the companies on the basis of their perceived corporate social responsibilities. This shows the concern of people towards society and the influence of CSR activities on their purchasing decision (Back, 2011). Growing investor pressure: Initially investors used to evaluate the companys performance and on the basis of future growth they took their decision of investment but now investors way of analyzing companys performance has been changed. Now investors include ethical concerns while evaluating companies for further investment. Australian investors are increasingly supporting activist campaigns on human rights and climate change issues. In some cases investors divested companies if they found the assessment of human rights and climate change on risk (Magna International Inc, 2015). Suppliers: Suppliers are the stakeholders of a firm and now stakeholders are increasingly taking interest in business affairs. Supply chain CSR issues include prompt payment, ethical sourcing, human rights of outsourced workers, use of migrant workers, treatment of animals, doing business with oppressive regimes and environmental impact in the supply chain (Whitman, 2015). CSR Policies and Profit maximization After the publication of the Milton Friedmans book: Capitalism and Freedom, there has been a constant debate on relationship between corporate social responsibility and profit maximization. According to Milton every corporate social responsibility is an investment wherein businesses bought assets and items with a hope to generate profit in future. On the other hand, it is argued that social responsibility programs are not meant for making profit in future. For example, software producers providing free software to the universities and drug development corporates donate free drugs to the government and other NGOs for health programs. One of the reasons behind contributing for social concerns is related to the vision and mission statement of the companies. For example Pfizer is an American global pharmaceutical corporation which is committed to health care and therefore company offers drugs for free (Fung, 2015). Despite of the fact that companies offer resources and help to a different segment of society still it does not mean that these firms are just helping the society and behind this there is no personal motive of them. Every corporate house has some personal motive behind any social responsibility. There are three reasons for considering this fact. Whenever a company performs any social responsibility it attracts the media coverage towards the company without any investment in media coverage. For example, if any company wishes to advertise their products through WSJ global edition then it costs nearly $400000 for a full page color advertisement. On the other hand, whenever a firm donates for CSR the social media automatically advertise the companys name. In other words it is also a direct cost saving or indirect profit increasing act (Robins, 2016). Another benefit of performing CSR activity is improved social status of corporate within the local areas. By doing CSR activities firms automatically earns social licenses for their business operations. The best example of this approach is the coal mining firms. Coal mining firms cause serious pollution in the local environment and also deter the overall development of the surrounding area. BHP billion is the worlds third largest global mining, oil and gas company. The company is actively involved in various corporate social responsibilities. BHP has created various foundations like The Minera Escondida Foundation in Chile to improve the quality life of local communities, The Montelbano Educational Foundation in Colombia to provide quality education to Cerro Matoso employees and their familiesetc. BHP SEWA society is focusing development in human and social capabilities of India. Through good social responsibility programs and developing good relationship with the local communities, firms try to get hidden approval for exploration rights (AMMA, 2015). Some companies are making corporate social responsibility a core of their operations such as Starbucks Company has created its C.A.F.E. practices guidelines which ensures that company process coffee by evaluating social, economic and environmental aspects of coffee production. Another notable example of effective CSR are Toms Shoes which donates one pair of shoes to needy children on every purchase of a pair of shoes. This shows that companies are associating CSR activities with their core values and operations. Through this approach of association, organizations are achieving two objectives one is fulfilling their responsibility towards society and another is establishing a strong brand image among the customers (ACCSR, 2016; Caneva, 2014). Conclusion Nonetheless the debate still continues on the role of CSR whether it is a pure non-profit act or it is an investment to generate profit in future. Some points that came into light through this analysis are that most of the big corporate houses contribute in CSR activities either in a wealth protecting or wealth enhancing way. The other fact is that investment in CSR activities always proved a beneficial step for every organization. Most of the executives believe that CSR activities help in improving the image of the organization which ultimately affects the growth of the business. Almost every company is engaged in the CSR activities that shows how important CSR activities are from the business point of view. References ACCSR. (2016). ACCSR. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from accsr.com.au: https://accsr.com.au/what-is-csr/ AMMA. (2015). Building Better Community Relationships. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.miningoilgasjobs.com.au: https://www.miningoilgasjobs.com.au/mining/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-mining---metals-sec/building-better-community-relationships.aspx Back, L. (2011). The Five Driving Forces of CSR: Can You Name a Sixth? Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.triplepundit.com: https://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/five-driving-forces-csr-sixth/ Bindl, U., Parker, S. K. (2010). Proactive work behavior: Forward-thinking and change-oriented action in organizations. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Briers, M., Chua, W. F. (2001). The role of actor-networks and boundary objects in management accounting change: a field study of an implementation of activity-based costing. Accounting, organizations and society, 26(3), 237-269. Caneva, L. (2014). Australias CSR Top 10. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from probonoaustralia.com.au: https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2014/06/australias-csr-top-10/ Caramela, S. (2016). What is Corporate Social Responsibility? Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.businessnewsdaily.com: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4679-corporate-social-responsibility.html Carroll, T. J., Linsmeier, T. J., Petroni, K. R. (2003). The reliability of fair value versus historical cost information: Evidence from closed-end mutual funds. Journal of Accounting, Auditing Finance, 18(1), 1-24. Ezzamel, M. (1994). Organizational change and accounting: understanding the budgeting system in its organizational context. Organization studies,, 15(2), 213-240. Fung, K. (2015). Profits Vs Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from themarketmogul.com: https://themarketmogul.com/profits-vs-corporate-social-responsibility/ Goossens, M. E., Rutten-van Mlken, M. P., Vlaeyen, J. W., van der Linden, S. M. (2000). The cost diary: a method to measure direct and indirect costs in cost-effectiveness research. . Journal of clinical epidemiology, 53(7), 688-695. Gray, R., Owen, D., Adams, C. (1996). Accounting accountability: changes and challenges in corporate social and environmental reporting. Prentice Hall. Greene, J. P. (2000). he Cost of Remedial Education: How Much Michigan Pays When Students Fail To Learn Basic Skills. Estimates of the Annual Economic Cost to Businesses, Colleges, and Universities To Counteract Employees' and Students' Lack of Basic Reading, Writing. 140 West Main Street, PO Box 568, Midland, MI 48640. Horngren, C. T. (2009). Cost accounting: A managerial emphasis. 13/e. Pearson Education India. IISD. (2016). Coporate social responsibility (CSR). Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.iisd.org: https://www.iisd.org/business/issues/sr.aspx Karmel, P. (2003). Higher education at the crossroads: Response to an Australian ministerial discussion paper. Higher Education, 45(1), 1-18. Magna International Inc. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility:. Magna International Inc. Onyebuchi, V. N. (2011). Ethics in accounting. International Journal of Business and Social Science,, 2(10). Robins, R. (2016). Does Corporate Social Responsibility Increase Profits? Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from business-ethics.com: https://business-ethics.com/2015/05/05/does-corporate-social-responsibility-increase-profits/ Whitman, M. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility vs Profit. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.sustainablebusinesstoolkit.com: https://www.sustainablebusinesstoolkit.com/corporate-social-responsibility-vs-profit/

Cost and Management Accounting Business Planning & Process

Question: Describe about the Cost and Management Accounting for Business Planning Process. Answer: 1. Cost and management accounting Introduction Cost and management accounting refers to the budgeting process of a business. It consists of planning about potential costs that will be occurred in future and applying best efforts to control them so as to gain efficiency. A cost accountant needs to predict expenditure of any future business project and identify the areas where it can be reduced and an efficient budget can be formed. The scope of cost accounting varies from a small business project to the overall business model. Before a project is started, a cost accountant is required to jot down all the expenses and during the project, expenditures are adhered to this plan so that the project may not get over budget. It also helps in management. After the project is completed, actual and budgeted costs are compared to identify the deviations and take corrective actions in future. Cost accounting in education industry In an education industry, cost and management accounting holds great significance since long- term expenditures comprise a major part of their costs. It is evident that long- term expenditures are the most critical ones because they are irreversible and contains huge penalty if prove to be wrong. Hence, a university must be very keen in accounting the potential costs that it will incur in coming future to deliver a particular education program to a single student. All the direct and indirect costs must be properly analysed to form a cost budget. A hypothetical situation is illustrated below (Horngren, 2009). Calculation of the cost per student of delivering a particular degree program from a universitys perspective Lets take a hypothetical situation in which a university has assigned a task to its cost accountant to assess how much will they cost in providing a post graduation degree of management field to a single student. It is also advised to consider all direct and indirect overheads. Expenses should also be classified as educational and non- educational. Besides that, university has the capacity of 800 students in masters of business administration. It has also been given that this university gets a fund for $200,000 every year by the state government to conduct research and development activities intended towards finding better and innovative ways to impart education in the country. Here is the list of different types of expenditures that are reported by the cost accountant that will be incurred next year (Greene, 2000). Educational and non- educational expenses: this category comprises of all the expenses that are incurred by the university on imparting education directly and indirectly. Universities are not only providing education, but also involve in other areas like RD, placement consultation and social welfare practices. All of these are listed under the head of non- educational expenses. But in educational expenses, we only include expenses like cost of infrastructure, furniture, basic amenities, salaries to teaching faculties, educational equipments, etc. The table below shows the description of these expenses. Direct and indirect costs: educational and non- educational expenses are further classified into direct and indirect expenses (Goossens, Rutten-van Mlken, Vlaeyen, van der Linden, 2000). Educational expenses Amount (in $) Indirect costs Cost of infrastructure (classrooms, labs, canteen, other amenities in the building) 100,000,000 (for next 20 years) Cost of furniture 800,000 (for 5 years) Cost of fixtures 200,000 (for five years) Extracurricular instruments 100,000 (for one year) Water treatment plan 700,000 (for two years) Electricity expenses 1,500,000 (for one year) Total 1,003,300,000 Direct costs Salary to faculties 2,500,000 (for one year) Laboratory equipments 500,000 (for one year) Expenses on Cultural and curricular activities 800,000 (for one year) Cost of stationary 400,000 (for one year) Total 4,200,000 Non- educational expenses Amount (in $) Indirect costs Cost of infrastructure (administration offices) 1,000,000 (for 20 years) Salary to management staff 1,500,000 (for one year) Research and development activities 200,000 (funded by government) Public welfare activities 500,000 (for one year) Placement consultation services 500,000 (for one year) Other miscellaneous overheads 100,000 (for one year) Total 3,800,000 Grand total 1,011,300,000 This total cost will be incurred on 800 students over a period of one year. However, some items are very long- term expenditures. Those should spread evenly throughout their life and the rest amount should be carried forward to next year. The cost of educational infrastructure is $100,000,000 for 20 years. For one year, it will be accounted as $100,000,000/ 20 which equal $5,000,000. The cost of furniture is $800,000 for 5 years. For one year, it accounts for $160,000. Cost of fixtures is $200,000 for 5 years. Hence, it will amount to $40,000 for this year. Water treatment plans cost for this year will be $350,000. Cost of administration infrastructure will be included up to $50,000 this year. So, total costs incurred this year would be $14,000,000 approximately. This will be divided by the total capacity of the university for this particular course. Hence, the cost of imparting education per student will be $14,000,000/ 800 which is equal to $17,500+ taxes only. However, the fees charged are quite high that constitutes the profits of the institution (Karmel, 2003). Challenges faced in such calculations Accounting has undergone many changes and up gradation in past decades. It not only includes, recording and interpreting transactions, but also helps in planning and controlling aspects of management. That is why organizations are known to have a hybrid accounting system for their operations. This will help them in getting an overall benefit of this function, but has also posed many challenges to accountant, especially in cost accounting calculations. Few of them are listed below. The major challenge faced by cost accountants is that they have to make plans for future. They do not have time to react to environmental changes, rather they have to behave pro actively to get first mover advantage and competitive edge. This calls for uncertainty and huge risks are involved (Bindl Parker, 2010). The role of accountants has changed from mere book- keepers to planners. They have to make cost and expenditure plans for the organization, which itself is a challenging task. After all, recording past transactions is quite simple than forecasting about future operations (Briers Chua, 2001). Environmental changes pose another challenge for accountants. Suppose a cost accountant has prepared an effective plan but the environment has such a drastic change that even derivative plans will not work, then the entire planning goes in vain (Gray, Owen, Adams, 1996). Organizational change or structural amendments render the plans formulated ineffective. Adhering to such conditions is again a big challenge for accountants (Ezzamel, 1994). Reliability of such calculations There are two phases to be understood in this scenario. First of all, the authenticity of the budget is analysed and checked out that whether the basis used to decide various cost factors and their approximate value is reliable or not. For example, the facets like government funding, corporate social responsibility, moral values have been indulged in the decision- making process or not. These factors will have a significant impact on the universitys cost structure and their reliability based on ethics and societal obligations. Besides that, it will also have a significant impact on the fees structure faced by the students. A profit margin over and above the total costs of a university will be declared as the prescribed amount of fees that must be charged from students. In the case study illustrated above, it is clear that the university has taken government funding into account and RD costs are not added to the total costs incurred by the organization. This shows a positive factor in the cost accounting of the institution. However, they have included the cost of public welfare in the total costs. An organization is expected to incur the expenses on corporate social responsibility out of its profits. It is not desirable that these costs are charged by the students. Hence, this is against the ethical grounds. This reduces the cost accounting reliability to be ethically correct (Onyebuchi, 2011). Besides that, the other phase of this cost and management accounting poses a question as to how much accurate these expenses are. External parties will never know if these expenses are over- estimated in the budget to manipulate profits figures and facts. This completely depends on the morality and ethical quotient of the institutions management and the cost accountant (Carroll, Linsmeier, Petroni, 2003). Topic 2 This essay has talked about corporate social responsibilities and their influence on both company and the society. Different categories of CSR activities have been discussed to know the forms of CSR. Further drivers that push businesses towards CSR activities have been analyzed and finally CSR activities of various big companies have been discussed to understand the relationship between the CSR and profit maximization. Corporate Social Responsibility Along with public sector private sector also consider societal development as their social responsibility. Private firms consider social development as one of the most essential principles of business development. The principle of corporate social responsibility is a way through which private firms contribute in societal development. Further corporate social responsibility is a way to balance the environmental, social and economic responsibilities in their operations to address the expectations of shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility is integrated in the operations of the corporation, their culture, values, strategy, decision making and reporting mechanisms. There are a few categories of CSR that many of the business firms are practicing (IISD, 2016). Environmental Efforts: One of the primary focuses of the firms through CSR activities is environment. Every business regardless of its size has large carbon footprints. Organizations take steps to reduce these carbon footprints. Removal of carbon footprints is considered beneficial for the corporation and the society as a whole. Apart from this some businesses encourage the diffusion and development of environmental friendly technologies. Ethical Labor Practices: Businesses prepare ethical code of conduct for fair treatment with the employees. This is also the part of corporate responsibility. Ethical labor practices are especially significant for the people who are working internationally. Effective abolition of child practices and elimination of all forms of compulsory and forced labor also comes under corporate responsibility of the companies. Philanthropy: Businesses donate to nationals and local charities as a practice of corporate responsibility. Businesses conduct various programs to help the local people and special communities. Volunteering: Some businesses attend social welfare event without any external force and this shows their sincerity towards the welfare of the society. Businesses do good deeds without expecting anything in return and show their concern for specific issues like education, employment, economic development, child labor, environmental etc. (Caramela, 2016). Drivers that pushes businesses towards CSR The shrinking role of government: In the past, governments had resources to deliver environmental and societal objectives but now the government resources are shrinking day by day which have forced the businesses to take initiatives voluntary. Increased customer interest: It is evident that the ethical code of companies influences the purchasing decision of customers. A recent survey conducted by Environics International reported that out of five customers more than one customer rated the companies on the basis of their perceived corporate social responsibilities. This shows the concern of people towards society and the influence of CSR activities on their purchasing decision (Back, 2011). Growing investor pressure: Initially investors used to evaluate the companys performance and on the basis of future growth they took their decision of investment but now investors way of analyzing companys performance has been changed. Now investors include ethical concerns while evaluating companies for further investment. Australian investors are increasingly supporting activist campaigns on human rights and climate change issues. In some cases investors divested companies if they found the assessment of human rights and climate change on risk (Magna International Inc, 2015). Suppliers: Suppliers are the stakeholders of a firm and now stakeholders are increasingly taking interest in business affairs. Supply chain CSR issues include prompt payment, ethical sourcing, human rights of outsourced workers, use of migrant workers, treatment of animals, doing business with oppressive regimes and environmental impact in the supply chain (Whitman, 2015). CSR Policies and Profit maximization After the publication of the Milton Friedmans book: Capitalism and Freedom, there has been a constant debate on relationship between corporate social responsibility and profit maximization. According to Milton every corporate social responsibility is an investment wherein businesses bought assets and items with a hope to generate profit in future. On the other hand, it is argued that social responsibility programs are not meant for making profit in future. For example, software producers providing free software to the universities and drug development corporates donate free drugs to the government and other NGOs for health programs. One of the reasons behind contributing for social concerns is related to the vision and mission statement of the companies. For example Pfizer is an American global pharmaceutical corporation which is committed to health care and therefore company offers drugs for free (Fung, 2015). Despite of the fact that companies offer resources and help to a different segment of society still it does not mean that these firms are just helping the society and behind this there is no personal motive of them. Every corporate house has some personal motive behind any social responsibility. There are three reasons for considering this fact. Whenever a company performs any social responsibility it attracts the media coverage towards the company without any investment in media coverage. For example, if any company wishes to advertise their products through WSJ global edition then it costs nearly $400000 for a full page color advertisement. On the other hand, whenever a firm donates for CSR the social media automatically advertise the companys name. In other words it is also a direct cost saving or indirect profit increasing act (Robins, 2016). Another benefit of performing CSR activity is improved social status of corporate within the local areas. By doing CSR activities firms automatically earns social licenses for their business operations. The best example of this approach is the coal mining firms. Coal mining firms cause serious pollution in the local environment and also deter the overall development of the surrounding area. BHP billion is the worlds third largest global mining, oil and gas company. The company is actively involved in various corporate social responsibilities. BHP has created various foundations like The Minera Escondida Foundation in Chile to improve the quality life of local communities, The Montelbano Educational Foundation in Colombia to provide quality education to Cerro Matoso employees and their familiesetc. BHP SEWA society is focusing development in human and social capabilities of India. Through good social responsibility programs and developing good relationship with the local communities, firms try to get hidden approval for exploration rights (AMMA, 2015). Some companies are making corporate social responsibility a core of their operations such as Starbucks Company has created its C.A.F.E. practices guidelines which ensures that company process coffee by evaluating social, economic and environmental aspects of coffee production. Another notable example of effective CSR are Toms Shoes which donates one pair of shoes to needy children on every purchase of a pair of shoes. This shows that companies are associating CSR activities with their core values and operations. Through this approach of association, organizations are achieving two objectives one is fulfilling their responsibility towards society and another is establishing a strong brand image among the customers (ACCSR, 2016; Caneva, 2014). Conclusion Nonetheless the debate still continues on the role of CSR whether it is a pure non-profit act or it is an investment to generate profit in future. Some points that came into light through this analysis are that most of the big corporate houses contribute in CSR activities either in a wealth protecting or wealth enhancing way. The other fact is that investment in CSR activities always proved a beneficial step for every organization. Most of the executives believe that CSR activities help in improving the image of the organization which ultimately affects the growth of the business. Almost every company is engaged in the CSR activities that shows how important CSR activities are from the business point of view. References ACCSR. (2016). ACCSR. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from accsr.com.au: https://accsr.com.au/what-is-csr/ AMMA. (2015). Building Better Community Relationships. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.miningoilgasjobs.com.au: https://www.miningoilgasjobs.com.au/mining/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-mining---metals-sec/building-better-community-relationships.aspx Back, L. (2011). The Five Driving Forces of CSR: Can You Name a Sixth? Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.triplepundit.com: https://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/five-driving-forces-csr-sixth/ Bindl, U., Parker, S. K. (2010). Proactive work behavior: Forward-thinking and change-oriented action in organizations. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Briers, M., Chua, W. F. (2001). The role of actor-networks and boundary objects in management accounting change: a field study of an implementation of activity-based costing. Accounting, organizations and society, 26(3), 237-269. Caneva, L. (2014). Australias CSR Top 10. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from probonoaustralia.com.au: https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2014/06/australias-csr-top-10/ Caramela, S. (2016). What is Corporate Social Responsibility? Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.businessnewsdaily.com: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4679-corporate-social-responsibility.html Carroll, T. J., Linsmeier, T. J., Petroni, K. R. (2003). The reliability of fair value versus historical cost information: Evidence from closed-end mutual funds. Journal of Accounting, Auditing Finance, 18(1), 1-24. Ezzamel, M. (1994). Organizational change and accounting: understanding the budgeting system in its organizational context. Organization studies,, 15(2), 213-240. Fung, K. (2015). Profits Vs Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from themarketmogul.com: https://themarketmogul.com/profits-vs-corporate-social-responsibility/ Goossens, M. E., Rutten-van Mlken, M. P., Vlaeyen, J. W., van der Linden, S. M. (2000). The cost diary: a method to measure direct and indirect costs in cost-effectiveness research. . Journal of clinical epidemiology, 53(7), 688-695. Gray, R., Owen, D., Adams, C. (1996). Accounting accountability: changes and challenges in corporate social and environmental reporting. Prentice Hall. Greene, J. P. (2000). he Cost of Remedial Education: How Much Michigan Pays When Students Fail To Learn Basic Skills. Estimates of the Annual Economic Cost to Businesses, Colleges, and Universities To Counteract Employees' and Students' Lack of Basic Reading, Writing. 140 West Main Street, PO Box 568, Midland, MI 48640. Horngren, C. T. (2009). Cost accounting: A managerial emphasis. 13/e. Pearson Education India. IISD. (2016). Coporate social responsibility (CSR). Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.iisd.org: https://www.iisd.org/business/issues/sr.aspx Karmel, P. (2003). Higher education at the crossroads: Response to an Australian ministerial discussion paper. Higher Education, 45(1), 1-18. Magna International Inc. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility:. Magna International Inc. Onyebuchi, V. N. (2011). Ethics in accounting. International Journal of Business and Social Science,, 2(10). Robins, R. (2016). Does Corporate Social Responsibility Increase Profits? Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from business-ethics.com: https://business-ethics.com/2015/05/05/does-corporate-social-responsibility-increase-profits/ Whitman, M. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility vs Profit. Retrieved Septmber 10, 2016, from www.sustainablebusinesstoolkit.com: https://www.sustainablebusinesstoolkit.com/corporate-social-responsibility-vs-profit/

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams free essay sample

An examination of the effects an absent father can have on his family as seen by Tennessee Williams. In this paper the author looks at the characters in this play by Tennessee Williams. The author notes that despite the main character actual absence absent from the play, he has a profound impact on all the other characters and all their actions and emotions are centered on him. The author concludes by suggesting that Williams wrote the play as an outlet for his own emotions. From the paper: ?Tennessee Williams uses this play as an outlet for his own pain, and his characters take on a truthful hue that no doubt strikes a chord in the audience. The Glass Menagerie is a play that no doubt has few characters more prominent that Mr. Wingfield, though Mr. Wingfield never once steps on stage. It is Mr. Wingfields absence from this family that causes their own glass house to break. We will write a custom essay sample on The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ?

Homelessness, 10 Year Plan Study Gd. Essay

Homelessness, 10 Year Plan Study Gd. Essay Homelessness, 10 Year Plan Study Gd. Essay What Actions the Could the Poor Take to Escape Poverty?  · Unionize  · Educate  · Vote  · Riot  · Pool their money – form credit unions Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Physiological Needs (food, water, air, sex) Safety Needs (shelter/safe conditions) Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness Needs for Esteem Needs for Self-Actualization Generational Poverty Family has never owned land Never knew anyone who benefited from education Never knew anyone who moved up or was respected in a job Highly mobile High family Illiteracy Focus is on making it through the day Working-Class Poverty Working, but rarely have money for any extras Most do not own property Live pay check to pay check Few have health care Focus on making it two weeks or through the month Immigrant Poverty Have little or no resources Face language and culture barriers Seem to do have a stronger sense of self and often do better than those born into poverty in America Poverty is viewed as a system problem Situational Poverty Surrounded by people who are educated or able to earn a living wage Attends school regularly and has health care Has crisis (health, divorce, etc.) and income drops Generally is able to make it back to middle-class Has not internalized the poverty as personal problem Does not recognize advantages of growing up middle-class Can be harsh judge of those in generational and working class poverty What Does Poverty Teach? Many people living in the crisis of poverty are sent messages through their interactions that impact their perspectives of what is possible. Here are some of the messages taught to people living in generational, working-class poverty, and immigrant poverty: No one cares Everyone seems smarter People who are making it must be better then me We don't belong anywhere People like us do not get educated We don't have what we need to break out of poverty There is no one to help * New Opportunities for Serving Children and Families Without Homes * The McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Children Youth Act * * Homeless Outreach Promoting Educational Success (HOPES) * Collaborative , Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) * Causes of Homelessness * Lack of affordable of housing * Due to economy and foreclosures * Lose of employment * Poverty * Health problems * Domestic violence * Natural and other disasters * Abuse/neglect/abandonment (unaccompanied youth) * Issues Facing Children Youth Experiencing Homelessness * Mobility - loss of structure, routine, stability * Trauma and loss * Deep poverty (deprivation, hunger) * Higher rates of developmental delays * Higher rates of chronic and acute health problems * Mental health issues: stress, anxiety, and depression * Disrupted or stressed attachments to caregivers * Invisibility * Developmental Factors Compared to non-homeless children, homeless children have: * Greater developmental delays (language, motor-development, and/or social skills) * More learning disabilities * More mental health problems * Higher frequency of withdrawal, shyness, separation anxiety, short attention disorder, flat affect, aggression, hoarding, anxiety in response to changes in environment or staff absences, concern over getting enough food, and sharing toys * More physical health problems * Common Signs of Homelessness * Frequent moves * Attendance at many different schools * Inability to pay fees for school related activities or school supplies * Behind academically * Erratic attendance or tardiness * Numerous absences * Inability to contact parents (no phone/address * Chronic hunger * Fatigue (falls sleep in class) * Increased vulnerability to colds/flu * Poor/short attention span * Lacks preparation for school (homework not complete, no school supplies or books) * Poor self-esteem * â€Å"Mature† beyond years *

New technology Getting Mixed Grades in School Essay

New technology Getting Mixed Grades in School - Essay Example The ideal solution in such a situation would be to earmark training funds wherever there is going to be new technological equipment to be used in any classroom across America. While it is easy to say that school administrators fully understand what their school needs, the same may not be true for state legislators or lawmakers which have a greater circle of influence (Lifto and Senden, 2006). They may know in general that computers are good for a school and may even help them win more votes if they are able to convince the voters that they supported more technology for the school but the question would remain if it was the right technology. Further, the appropriate use of the right technology can only be governed by school administrators since they control what equipment would be used and by which classes. While at first it seems that Lewis is describing some magnificent work of technological greatness such as a smart board which is in use in many schools today, the year of the article, i.e. 1840, makes that proposition a very unlikely one. A clear picture of the article and an explanation of what exactly Lewis (1840) is describing comes from Donawerth and Seeff (2001) who note that, â€Å"This article was describing the blackboard (Donawerth and Seeff, 2001, Pg. 238)†. Knowing that makes the article all the more interesting since it shows that problems in using new technologies in teaching have existed for more than 150 years. Computers themselves have met the charges since they were expected to revolutionize teaching with things such as CBT and self guided lessons that let students explore and learn on their own. However, the failure of computers to improve our children’s education levels has also been blamed on the lack of training that our teachers may have with regard to using them. In fact, any modern technology such as projectors, media systems or even VCRs could fir the charges since they all may confuse the individual using

Women's Studies. Gender Violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Women's Studies. Gender Violence - Essay Example Women abuse is very popular and it has become like an order of the day since in some societies even a boy child does not give an elderly woman the deserved respect equal to the one he would give to a male counterpart. In various societies, a woman is considered as a weaker success who cannot handle some tasks. Could problem have been the society we live in? Or is it our forefathers’ who initiated this? But then what are we doing to curb this kind of mistreatment? Can we all rise up and say no to gender violence? This piece of writing analyses the issue of gender violence. Undeniably, issues of gender violence are on the rise and something ought to be done about it. Some of the court decisions regarding these violence are actually not satisfying and I believe very punitive action will solve this matter to a very large extend. Talking about human rights, this is among the issues that should be addressed. A female child or a woman must enjoy her freedom once and for all without e ven an inch of denial. It is upsetting to hear that even celebrities who should lead these campaigns such as Chris brown are involved in this kind of character. This is certainly perturbing and it leaves someone wondering who should lead the campaign geared towards eradicating this kind of vice in the society if even the most respected people in the society are guilty of it. Who is in a good position to solve this abuse? I am convinced that we can all come together and treat all females equally by knowing that they are all human beings who deserve freedom and have rights given to them by their creatures. The following story is one of the sad stories of gender violence which is very rampant in military. Amanda Tenorio was a 28-year old divorced mother of two whose husband turned violent to shortly after marriage and later became a victim advocate for Army Community Services at Joint Base Henderson. Being a gender violence survivor, she was actually the best person to address this iss ue particularly after her husband’s unvarying thrashings caused her grave damages such as dislocated knees and brain injuries that eventually put her into unconsciousness. Tenorio together with other domestic violence survivors have strongly come out to condemn this act more so out of the military families that also seem to experience most of the violence. Tenorio feels that it is important to address this issue and she strongly believes that helping people through education is really vital especially the many victims that we come across almost on daily basis. The program which is aimed at eradicating and creating awareness amongst military families is put on all military installations. The program which focuses on treatment and interventions as well as trying to assist both the victim and the abuser has more than 800 clinical social workers and quick quickly responds to emergencies that would require either healthcare and shelter interventions. It is also revealed that some of the causes of violence are stressful situations such as financial difficulties, military trimming, or even handling of outcome of combat and the increase of this violence immensely worries the military leaders and domestic violence workers thus making the program to be focused on everyone in the military. Although war is very violent, it is not supposed to contribute to domestic violence and therefore it should change the attitude of the soldiers towards violence by making soldiers even better people. Loss of job can however bring stress such as how to complete mortgage or pay bills and this only requires counseling since violence can never solve this situation. The program that was started by Tenorio is therefore intended

Microbiology and biotechnology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Microbiology and biotechnology - Assignment Example This is to produce drug intermediates and produce vaccines or the drugs themselves (Baker, Nicklin and Griffiths, 2011). One application of gene therapy in medicine has been in treatment of type I diabetes. In the treatment, the researchers have used adenovirus as a vector to enable them delivers the gene for hepatocyte growth factor. Another application of gene therapy is in treatment of x-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (Baltz, Davies and Demain, 2010). This is a disease common in babies where they lack both T and B cells of the immune system and they are mainly exposed to infections. The applications are through non-viral vectors being tested for the gene therapy uses. The application include receptor on the goal cell, artificial chromosomes and naked DNA that is not linked to another molecule at all and can be directly injected into the cell (Baltz, Davies and Demain, 2010). Crude oil and its products are non-renewable and are considered to one day come to an end. Biofuel has been used as a replacement of crude oil as the source is renewable and produced from biomass. The approach that has been used to eliminate the use of crude oil is on the effects on the environment and the costs of the use (El-Mansi and Bryce, 2007). The approach is that biofuels may be easy to market than crude oil with consideration of performance, infrastructure and other factors. The other reasons for the approach are that biofuels play an important role in climate change and the important increase in production and use (El-Mansi and Bryce, 2007). Biotechnology has resulted to several advantages such as reduction in the costs of agriculture production as those in the sector are able to use fewer pesticides and herbicides in protecting their crops. The improved varieties are also able to increase the yield in a short duration. Increase food production has also been observed through the use of the method. There has also been ability to produce food in even times

Media: The Most Powerful Entity On Earth

Media: The Most Powerful Entity On Earth In his article, The Mediatization of Society Theory, Hjarvard deduces that media simultaneously become an integrated part of society, not to mention the existence of other new social media. New social media, a set of identity-centric information and communication technologies (ICTs) that enables production and sharing of digital content in a mediated social setting (Studstzman, 2009) such as Facebook and Twitter, have successfully attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices and transformed them from a situation of information scarcity to one of information abundance. Accordingly, Ronn (2007) in one of his reports noted that social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are among the most visited sites on the Internet, just behind the major search engines. Facebook for example, as the site grows more popular, claims that it has more than 500 million active users and 50% of users log on to this site everyday (Facebook, 2011), while Twitter records 175 million registered users since its first launch in 2006, with around 95 million tweets are written per day (Twitter, 2011). Both Facebook and Twitter equipped with platforms that allow individuals, as cited in Boyd (1997), to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. These platforms not only serve its users as a tool of sharing of life minutiae (Green, 2011) but also seize the opportunity of increasing their engagement in various issues. For example, Facebook and Twitter have played an increasing role in American politics as they become what US President Barrack Obama campaign in 2008 were most successfully noted for. Accordingly, both also facilitate online community to raise fund for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victim as well as assist innovation that plays as a significant role in cultural change. In other word, interactive and collaborative features provided by the platform of social media have made the dimension of political, social and cultural advancement become more prominent. However, it appears questionable to simply claim that social media alternately acts as the ground of political revolution or creates new social identity and induce cultural change (Boyd, 2011, Green 2011, Hoffman Kornweitz, 2011). A single click on Facebook gro up and merely a tweet do not make people politically activated and socially changed. As emphasises by Boyd (2011), it seems to be only a majestical lustre that technologys structure instantly influences peoples behaviour. Correspondingly, Green (2011) also voices an interesting quandary if social media actually enhance the democracy itself. It is reasonable since Facebook and Twitter are not a replace for motivation that at least required for a revolution to be taken place or new community to be formed. Nonetheless, it is likely understandable from current events that social media have the power to pursue and persuade as by providing platform toward political revolution, social community and cultural advancement yet bring negative and positive consequences for those three subjects. SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL REVOLUTION As mention above, Facebook, in particular, provides three default platforms for its users to convey their political interest (Langlois, 2009). First, users can become fan of politicians profile or page. Second, they can create or join a group and last, they can change their political views in their profile. Among three, becoming a fan or a group is considered to allow users to be more engaged. Once the common interests are created, the Facebook platforms greatly simplify communicating within and to a network via emails, invitation and reminders. Shirky (2011), social media have become coordinating tools for nearly all of the worlds political movement. Prominent example for this argument is U.S. President Barack Obamas election in 2008. As cited from Obamas Facebook groups during the campaign greatly simplify communicating within and to more than 1, 2 millions of his supportersHe also highlights three default ways . Langlois (2009), Addressed by Hoffmann Kornweitz as medium of direct citizen participation, this aggregation of public via the social network does remarkably magnify the engagement of society to the campaign itself, by extending their social activities/participation such as informing others about campaign events, attempting to persuade donations or taking part in activities related to politics without having to sit down face to face! against History of Russia and France are best example of how lack of new social media did not impede both countries revolutions from happening. The media themselves ineffective acted by casual participants which obviously does not guarantee that every political movement of mobilization will succeed, because the state has not lost the power to react. Take Tunisia for example. The only way both governments could immensely stop the quick dissemination of information was to shut down the whole internet. SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIAL IDENTITY/COMMUNITY As noted above, new social media such as Facebook and Twitter are potentially able to change the character of our social live. According to . that the new media is changing the way people think, act, and feel. Langlois (2009) stated that social media allows for the emergence of marginalized issue and public: The online informational system provide the material, communicational and social means for a public to exist Therefore, it is likely clear that new social media can be powerful tools for spurring social change, with stressing point that it played a facilitating, mediating role in connections and interactions among its user in society. There are at least three reasons for this claim to be apprehended: Firstly, social media enables creation of dense network that extend human communication abilities in both time and space. According to technological determinism purposed by Mc Luhan, the world now is a global village, where physical distance is even less of a hindrance to the real-time communicative activities of people. Therefore social spheres are greatly expanded by the openness of the web and the ease at which people can search for online communities and interact with others that share the same interests and concerns. Secondly, social medias quick dissemination of information supports new communities to be created, (virtual). Equipped with features that enable for users to be more interactive and collaborative, social media becomes a form of mediated communication that gives the audience access to on-demand content and the ability to share and discuss it with others within seconds. Lets look at Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake for example. Addison asserts in one of his reports that images and videos of Japans tsunami were soon hitting the web just minutes count from the first wave hit Sendai. Thousands messages were then updated via Twitter within seconds, showing of good will, condolences and offering aid for Japan. Social media facilitates such as allowing people the chance to donate to the Red Cross via text message, the donation being added to phone bills. According to the members of the each social medium, there are more than 500 million people are using Facebook and more than 200 million view s on the Youtube for a day. It means billions of audiences are able to share and receive information on the same platform at the same time. Moreover, the information on the social media can be posted and received immediately. Therefore, the information on the social media could be disseminated much faster, compared with traditional media. Thirdly, specifically that the social media is more user generated content, it allows users as news producers. The social media provide a platform for public to advocate social issues. Moreover, it also means the news is not limited by organizations or governments anymore. For instance, for Chinese Jasmine Revolution in 2011, even the Chinese Government tried to stop the situation to be expanded on the social media, it is still held quite successfully. Afterwards, the international media is starting to be conscious to what the revolution was trying to present to public and they are trying to report it to public as well. According to media and social dependency theory (Defleur Ball-Rokeach), for some countries (especially developing countries), if public are uncertain about their society and country, it is much easier for them to rely on the media. It means for some countries, audiences might be easy to follow the issues. In short, social media definitely, developed freedom of speech. With every response and action that results from our engagement, we are slowly introduced to the laws of social physics: for every action there is a reaction even if that reaction is silence. And, the extent of this resulting activity is measured by levels of influence and other factors such as the size and shape of nicheworks as well as attention aperture and time. the concept of community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location. However, idea of new community in Facebook did not make Obama win his Presidency. SOCIAL MEDIA AND CULTURAL ADVANCEMENT Conclusion Yes, overall it can especially in terms of providing fast, quick and ..platform ,,,. Media scholars argue that social media platforms are tools of self-expression that return a benefit to a public good It is reasonable since Facebook and Twitter are not a replace for motivation that at least required for a revolution to be taken place or new community to be formed. . People can virtually gather in Facebok and Twitter online community or groups, regardless geographical limitations and physical location, which (.). Ronn, K. (2007). Social networking: Closer than you think. Business Week Online, p. 12. Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/jun2007/ca20070612_954809.htm Hjarvard, S. (2008). The Mediatization of Society: A Theory of the Media as Agents of Social and Cultural Change. [Article]. NORDICOM Review, 29(2), 105-134.