Answers for Section B: Case Studies of Group Work 1

Questions:

1. What is the impact to the world in terms of social economic value as the result of the retirement of Western Union telegrams?

2. How have online retailers such as Amazon.com affected change in traditional brick-and-mortar business such as Sears?

3. Problem solving: It is often difficult for old, established industries to change business practices. How can this be observed in the impact of the digital music boom (MP3 file sharing) on record companies and their traditional methods of music distribution?

4. Consider the uses of technology at your school. How are educational institutions taking advantage of technology to compete with each other and attain students?

Answers:

Answer to Question 1 by Faiz:

Social Value is the principle and standards of human interaction within a given group that are regarded by members of that group as being worthy, important or significant. This social value can influence by communication technology which is new business with new innovations regularly eclipse old business based on old technologies. A business must continuously evaluate its mission and practices in light of current day trends.

Before the retirement of western union telegram, people used telegrams to send cross country messages in less than a day. Earlier, messages were sent via pony express. In the early days of electronic communication, western union telegrams were an important part of person to person communication around the world. Telegrams reached their peak in year ago when it was cheaper to send a telegram than it was to make a long distance phone call. Telegram became much more amusing with the invention of the singing telegram in 1993. Early in 2006, telegram is the last delivered as western union discontinued its telegram service. The invention of the telephone and fax machine reduced the need for telegrams. Today, western union’s core business is in helping consumers and business transfer money and make payments.

After the retirement of western union telegram, people used new technologies can cause businesses to redefine themselves. Today, they used different methods to send messages in less than a day, for example fax, e-mail and mobile phone. These businesses implemented sustaining change by changing their organizations to move with new trends. Sometimes these methods will refuse to change. The consequences lose out to others that embrace new technologies, as though technology itself has callously plowed them under. It is important to consider the changes brought about by new technologies and gauge their value in terms of quality of life. While western union telegram not longer been used and new technology like fax, e-mail and mobile phone will be called as Smartphone.

Summary about two different methods, western union telegram is famous method to sent messages but this method not longer used because from year to year this method will leave behind and new technology will produce for example fax, e-mail and mobile phone. Nowadays people used Smartphone method to sent messages to others country and it take less than a day. You can make text messages at home or everywhere. Overall, using Smartphone is very easy to sent messages to everyone.

References
Education.com (2012) Education
Available from: http://www.education.com/definition/social-values/, [Accessed on 18th May 2012]

Answer to Question 2 by Fafa:

Sears:

Disadvantages:

• Dominated home delivery with 75 million catalogs distributed each year  at which it is a waste of paper for these days and is not efficient and not recent updated.
• Sears (SHLD) has not retooled its venerable brand for the technology age and still using the mail-order-catalogs method.
• Sears have the ideas what to offer to customers to have the feature or tools but they give it without giving real thought to how consumers use them.  In addition, refunds are not allowed.

Amazon.com

Advantages:

• Amazon has a strange system of charging a flat shipping rate per item, regardless of its size and weight, while Sears computed exact shipping charges, whether freight, express or mail, and tables are given to enable customers to compute these for themselves. In addition, Amazon has a per-shipment packing charge, which can be relatively large for small orders. Sears made no charge for packing and handling.

• It is cheaper, even after the cost of shipping, especially with products for which you can choose from a number of vendors.

• Amazon.com have so much more recent product lines than a marketplace which is more than what Sears have provided such as, books, music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items, toys and games, baby products, apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items, beauty products, musical instruments, clothing, industrial and scientific supplies.

• Amazon have AmazonFresh, which announced in August 2007. It is a grocery service offering perishable and nonperishable foods. Customers can have orders delivered to their homes at dawn or during a specified daytime window. And they also operated pick-up locations.

• Amazon's Subscribe & Save program offers a discounted price on an item (usually sold in bulk), free shipping on every Subscribe & Save shipment, and automatic shipment of the item every one, two, three, or six months.

• Amazon have their own online music store called the Amazon MP3 and they are selling downloads exclusively in MP3 format without digital rights management.

• Amazon released a Mac download store in order to offer dozens of games and hundreds of pieces of software for Apple computers.

• They have the Amazon Prime which is a service of two-day shipping on all eligible purchases, for a flat annual fee, as well as discounted one-day shipping rates.

• Computing services are provided:-

o   Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002, which provides programmatic access to latent features on its website.

o   Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is an online storage service. It has an unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5 terabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and transferred.

o   Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure to run applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting.

o   SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high-reliability, high-performance database system.

·         They can do film production. In 2008, they producing the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox.

References

• Wordpress.com (2010) A First Glance at the Sears Marketplace
  Available from: http://retailya.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/a-first-glance-at-the-sears-marketplace/, [Accessed on 18th May 2012]

• Pantaneto.co.uk (2006) McKinley’s Amazon
  Available from: http://www.pantaneto.co.uk/issue23/ben-ari.htm, [Accessed on 18th May 2012]
  

• Elizabeth G. Olson (2012) How Amazon ate Sears' lunch
  http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/09/how-amazon-ate-sears-lunch/, [Accessed on 19th May 2012]
  

• Wikipedia (2012) Title: SEARS
  Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears, [Accessed on 19th May 2012]
  

• Wikipedia (2012) Amazon.com
  Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#cite_note-96, [Accessed on 18th May 2012]
  
  

Answer to Question 3 by Aziz:

Music has been around since the ancient times and has been an important part of our lives. Music can be used in various ways such as to deliver meaningful messages, express feelings, culture wise and entertainment. However in this essay, I will discuss how record companies are affected by the impact of file sharing and music distribution.

With our modern technology, file sharing has been made very easy to access by means of the internet or devices such as mobile phones or Bluetooth. Music is so accessible that a person can simply download it from the internet. Rarely do they go and purchase CDs from music stores anymore; unlike how it all started. This method, will definitely affect record companies in so many ways such as; income, piracy and work opportunities.

Because of music piracy, record companies have lost, not entirely, but a fraction or more of their source of profit. This is because people don’t buy their products anymore as they download it from the internet or through peer to peer sharing methods such as torrents.

Not only that, file sharing also caused dropping percentage of working opportunities for the unemployed. The artists who work hard to sell their albums will also be affected; their source of income is focused on their products.

Apart from all that, when you use software that facilitates illegal downloads, the computer will be vulnerable to viruses and security breaches.

In conclusion, enjoy the music but at the same time respect the copyright as well. File sharing is copying another person’s creation without their permission and that is the same like stealing one’s belonging.

Answer to Question 4 by Azwan:

Technological advances are rapidly changing way in which educational institute works throughout the world. The term Technologies refers as a branch of knowledge that makes a creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment. To use technologies, it needs a tutor as a guide and a student to learn to use it. Not only, company and industry can use technologies, but education institution also able to use it when it is what they want.

Before the World Wide Web arises, educational institutes had to rely on word-of-mouth, advertising in daily newspapers, advert it at another Institute and at events specifically designed for showcasing further learning institutes such as open days and seminars. Nowadays, every Institute has a website, and links to the websites via other associated websites. For example, Micronet International College had their own site with URL address www.micronet.com.bn. These websites not only appeal to prospective students, but are also used as a platform to advertise for teachers. For example, www.brudirect.com is well known websites where educators can post their resumes for potential employees to view, as well as browsing through the sites' jobs page.

The internet has changed the way in which institutes compete for students. It is by using online learning. Universities and colleges in particular are eager to make us of the internet and more precisely, e-learning. The typical university student is no longer seen as being a young twenty-something; people from all places and all generations are potential students, and the higher learning institutes are aware of this. By using emails and GMAIL it is now possible for students to communicate with their teachers. Web Boards are used as virtual classrooms where students and teachers alike can post messages, have discussions, and upload files.

The stunning features of e-learning give students the flexibility to study during hours that suit them from the comfort of their own home or the closest internet cafe. The classroom is still the main learning environment for any Institute, and the technology used in the classroom has come a long way. Most schools are equipped with computer rooms, and it is common for there to be a computer in the class for the use with the teacher. Overhead projectors are also used to display images from the computer onto a large white screen. This feature is particularly useful for teachers who wish to use software such as PowerPoint when presenting their lesson. Wireless microphones are also used in the classroom to provide audibility in large classrooms whilst at the same time allowing unrestricted movement around the classroom

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In conclusion, computer technology is a positive supplement to bridge the gap between education and the world in which we live. Computer-assisted technologies in schools offer students greater access to information, an eager motivation to learn; a jump-start on marketable job skills and an enhanced quality of class work. The future of the classroom looks promising with interactive whiteboards becoming popular in recent years, podcasts being used by teachers who are technologically adept, and assignments, syllabuses, grades, and schedules posted online can all be found being used in the modern classroom.

References

Tommy11 (2009) How are educational institutes making the most of technology?
Available from: http://www.bukisa.com/articles/166632_how-are-educational-institutes-making-the-most-of-technology [Accessed on 20th May 2012]