Factors That Can Make Person Homeless - Free Essay Example

Homelessness People of all genders, races, and ages can become homeless. Chances are you have walked by or shared a bus with someone who is homeless (Homeless Poverty). You never know someones situation. While people think the homeless are there because they are lazy, many reasons can lead to their situation such as domestic violence, drug abuse, illness, or death of a loved one. Domestic violence is the leading cause for women to become homeless (domesticshelters.org). Nicole, a domestic violence survivor, has made a strong decision that has caused her life to change. Fleeing from an abuser has forced her to choose between abuse at home and life on the streets. Nicole doesnt have a job and being homeless only hurts any attempt she makes to get one, as employers wont hire someone who doesnt have a permanent address. This makes her unable to provide for herself. Drugs abuse can take your life down a road you never thought you would travel. Patrick used substances to attain temporary relief from his problems. Substance abuse can lead to poor physical and mental health, which makes obtaining employment or residential stability difficult. Addiction ruined Patricks relationships, lead to termination of employment and caused him to lose a handle on his finances. With nowhere else to go, he became homeless. For many homeless people, substance abuse co-occurs with mental illness. Often, people with untreated mental illnesses use street drugs as an inappropriate form of self-medication. (Substance Abuse and Homelessness ) Robert has diabetes. Due to this illness, he has already lost one leg. Infection threatens to take the other. He has applied for disability; however, his hearing is not for two months. Robert received an eviction notice this month. These events of physical health problems will put Robert on the streets. (Stinnett) Genes mother died. His family had turned him away. He had nowhere to go, causing him to be homeless. He had diabetes and had received disability and food stamps. Disability checks are not enough for one person to live on. Some people develop the frame of mind, where they become content with their situation. They find resources to eat and get clothing and some find a bed for a few nights at a time. Gene lived on the streets for 10 years before he had a stroke and was put in a nursing home. (Stinnett) It is sad when you try to help someone who does not want to change. Some choose to still take drugs, to lie, steal, and take advantage of you. I spoke with an employee at our local soup kitchen. Her name is Joyce Stinnett. By reaching out and becoming a volunteer, Joyce has impacted many lives with her job. Not only feeding their hunger of food but also feeding their hearts (Stinnett). Joyce has given me a new perspective on the homeless. She has taught me to reach out with an open mind. There are many factors that contribute to a persons situation; domestic violence, drug abuse, illness or the death of a loved one can lead anyone to be homeless. Works Cited domesticshelters.org. Homelessness and Domestic Violence. 1 January 2015. . Stinnett, Joyce. Volunteer Angela Myers. 3 October 2018. Substance Abuse and Homelessness . Bringing America Home (2009): 1. . The Bowery Mission. 2010-2018. Homeless Poverty. .

The Effects Of Technology On Our Children - 1364 Words

These days times are changing, increasingly fast, technology advances are leaping us ahead faster than we could have imagined and this has been a major component of the rapid velocity of today s society (Walker, 2005). Most people of today find they are rushing everywhere, be it getting to work or getting home from work, even getting our children to and from their activities is a rush to complete; In current times, we expect everything to be done the moment it is requested, most of us have access to emails, messages and phone calls instantly due to mobile phones and devices however, even with the benefits of our technological advances, people don’t seem to be any happier, healthier or wiser for it (Walker, 2005). With our fast paced,†¦show more content†¦The school system has also played a major role in contributing to the loss of childhood with its replacing of free play with the academic goal orientated curriculum (Lynott Logue, 1993). Children are expected to con form the minute they hit school age with set boundaries on when they can and cannot do things, their free play is strictly limited and they are expected to preform to the same standards as all the other children in their age group. Talented children are frequently shifted from one book to another or one level of ability to another deprived of time in between for parallel supplementation and Intelligent children can quickly become conscious that to perform quicker entails more work of the same kind (McGreevy, 1987). These talented children do require the chance to validate what they comprehend in particular capacities; however, they then need to have the time to foster development endeavors and slow down their rate of progression at the same time, we need to allow for both of these to happen in order to get full benefit from the learning. (McGreevy, 1987). Stereotypes and false expectations are another issue within schools which have an effect on the rushed development of childhood, this results in children being labeled too quickly as gifted or even labeling them as being behind what is expected, this isShow MoreRelatedTechnology And Its Detrimental Effect On Children1123 Words   |  5 PagesLuke Stafford En 102 Essay 4 6/22/2015 Technology is a large part of everyday life in the 21st century, and the effects of its power over our culture are clearly visible in multiple ways. For example, social media is the most popular form of communication and using the internet and computers seems second nature to us, especially in the form of entertainment. Many children today have never known a time when they didn’t have access to the internet, a television, or a cell phone. 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According to Medline Plus, too much screen time can â€Å"make it hard for your child to sleep at night, raise your child’s risk of attention problems, anxiety, and depression, and raise your child’s risk of gaining too much weight† (Screen time and children: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia). These are only just a few of the many negative effects of too much screen time in developing children. If I had an infant, or toddlerRead MoreTechnology Has Changed Our Society Essay1425 Words   |  6 PagesRATIONALE The predominance of technology has significantly influenced our society. Technology is being used all over the place, anywhere and is instant. When we say technology, it can mean a lot of things. 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Desert Immigrants The Mexicans of El Paso 1880-1920 by...

Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso 1880-1920 analyzes and discusses the Mexican immigrants to El Paso, Texas. The most western city of the vast state of Texas, a city in the edge of the Chihuahuan desert; a place too far away from many regions of the United States, but as Mario Garcà ­a explains a very important city during the development of the western United States. He begins explaining how El Paso’s proximity to different railroads coming from Mà ©xico and the United States converged there, which allowed El Paso to become an â€Å"instant city†, as mining, smelting, and ranching came to region. (Garcà ­a 2) As El Paso is transforming, and becoming an industrialized city –there is a surge in labor need, as mining is booming. Many Mexicans†¦show more content†¦Mario Garcà ­a’s study of this era could also be considered prophetic to many Mexicans in the mid-nineties as the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, it sank Mà ©xico’s economy, lands that the Mexican revolution had provided for farmers were gone, and as Mà ©xico was now obliged with treaty to buy produce from the United States. Mexican farmers unable to compete fled Mà ©xico once again in search for a better life to the United States. Garcà ­a’s book can be very dense at times, providing the reader with many numbers, graphs, and statistics. Nevertheless, these statistics provide the reader with a better understanding on how El Paso was being shaped by Mexican immigrants; it also provides a new light on immigration during the nineteen and twentieth century’s in the United States. Many times Mexican immigration is overlooked, and thought of, as a recent event, when people think of nineteenth century immigration many think of the European immigration into the United States, yet Garcà ­a’s study shows that people were

The Life And Writing Career - 1265 Words

This paper investigates the life and writing career of British J.M. Barrie. He was a great British author who gained success rapidly. This essay elaborates on the story behind his famous play Peter Pan; the true influence and reasons why he wrote it. The writing style of J.M. barrie is spread through different types of genres. Reviews and criticism of the play were very positive back then and are still very positive now for Peter Pan. Audiences from all over the world still adore this play. Today, it still has a major impact on society, great movies are still being produced of Peter Pan. Sequels of Peter Pan have also been made into movies. The legacy in which he left behind is astonishing. Introduction â€Å"Never say goodbye†¦show more content†¦Barrie was born on May 9, 1860 in Kirriemuir Forfarshire, Scotland. He graduated Edinburgh University in 1882 (J.M. Barrie), and later moved to London to pursue his passion in playwright (J.M. Barrie Biography). He also worked as a journalist before. Barrie was already a hit for his many successful novels, books, and plays. He liked to take long walks in London’s Kensington Garden, and there he met the five brothers who inspired his most famous play. He was very fond of the Llewelyn family, and often play around with them (J.M. Barrie Biography). Barrie took care of them after their parents passed away and became their guardian. The boys names were George, Jack, Peter Michael, and Nicholas. It is said that the story Peter Pan was to entertain the boys. Barrie then made it into a play to help support them after he had taken them in. Peter Pan then became a huge success. Writing Career Barrie explored many genres in his writing career. He went from being a weaver’s son to writing novels, books, and plays; he also challenged himself to write different genres (Avery, G). His first book, Auld Licht Idylls in 1888 was successful along with his several books, and novels. After 1897, he focused more on writing for the theatre, in which later he wrote Peter Pan. Peter Pan was first performed in London on 27 Dec. 1904 (Barrie, J.M.). An excerpt from Peter Pan When Wendy grows up, â€Å"As for Peter, he saw Wendy once again before he flew away. He did not exactly come to the

Sustainable Development And Energy Development The G8...

The ongoing demand and patterns of industrial energy production and consumption are highly unsustainable which may lead to face multiple challenges like global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, geopolitical conflicts, consecutive fuel price rises and at last fossil fuel reserves depletion. Worldwide all the developing countries are working to make a vibrant industrial sector where entrepreneurs will make investments and thus opportunities will be created for new jobs. To achieve sustainable development and alleviating poverty, most of the developing countries followed the energy strategy to be focused on combating energy poverty by improving integration systems to the reliable and renewable energy services, enhancing energy efficiencies and promoting renewable energy to meet rising energy demand in industrial areas. Moreover, in reference to UNIDO (2007b), potential of renewable and clean energy resources to protecting the environment is yet to be realized. The G8 Summit Declaration of 7 June 2007 states: â€Å"Improving energy efficiency worldwide is the fastest, the most sustainable and the cheapest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance energy security.† [3,5-8, 52] However, in places without sufficient solar energy supply, it’s not possible to create solar energy system integration in industries or other promising sectors. Now-a-days these industrial processes are using electricity or liquid or gaseous petroleum fuels to meet the demand of industrial process

Financial Analysis of Dynamic Investment Ltd †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Financial Analysis of Dynamic Investment Ltd. Answer: Introduction The main objective of this report is to consider the professional guidelines with regard to the clients from the Dynamic Investment Ltd. who are concerned about investing into the firms of Australian IPO in the sector of finance, consumer discretionary and the information technology. In the year 2016, the market of Australian IPO achieved the highest position following the financial crisis that took place during 2009(Asker, 2014). It has been identified that during the past 36 years the organizations from Australia are listing their shares in the IPO market of Australia. As per the survey report various reasons are there, for instance, telecommunications, media and technology (TMT), better performance, industry growth and the growth in the healthcare industry that has shown 16.5% growth in this sector of market)(Dongxin, 2014). As the market is stable in growth prospect, the investors are interested in investing in this sector and therefore, demand for particular suggestions from Dyn amic Investment Ltd. as per the research, the short-term performance of the US market is well known for this approach. Although the present scenario of the US IPO has a decreasing trend, the occurrence of reduction in price is not that is something new to this market. However, no such indication is there that Australian market will also experience the same thing like US IPO with regard to the concept of reduced price(Urusua, 2017). Under this circumstance, it is crucial for the investors that they understand the IPO market of Australia in broader aspect and regarding how the return and risk relationship holds its position over the years. With regard to this, the return from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) from the period between 1st November and 31st December has been assesses by the financial advisor of Dynamic Investment Ltd ((Moorman, 2015). The 1st part of this study will represent the calculation regarding the initial return and will analyse the IPO market of Australia in association with the calculation of return. The 2nd part of this study will analyse the long-term preference of the customer discretionary with regard to the holding period return over the two years period. Lastly, the report will investigate the reasons behind the price reduction of short-term IPO and the capability to contrast and compare the reasons through the result from the empirical study(Zervoudi, 2016). Assessment of the IPO market of Australia In this section, the very first step is to evaluate the IPO sample obtained from the IPO market of Australia. To evaluate the listed IPOs during the chosen interval of time, the financial advisor has taken into account the premium database from Morningstar. At the time of analysing these IPOs, the IPOs have been excluded from the analysis, which do not have their issue price or which were suspended. After the exclusion, the financial advisor found total 29 organizations(Shi, 2016) The following table is showing the descriptive statistics for the initial return: Particulars Initial return (%) Mean 3.61 Median 0.00 Minimum -22.02 Maximum 55.00 1st Quartile -2.50 3rd Quartile 5.00 It can be identified from the above table that the value of the mean specified that the average of initial return is 3.61%. if the value of mean is only accounted for, then it can be stated that the IPO market from Australia was growing well over the short-term period. However, the minimum and maximum value as per the above table is revealing different outcomes. Moreover, from the minimum and maximum value, it can be argued that the performance of IPO over the short-term period significantly differs with various industries and the organizations(Sharma, 2017).The difference will be more obvious from the graph shown below: Long-term performance analysis of the consumer Discretionary industry: In this section, the consumer discretionary is been selected to analyse the long-term performance of the IPO market of Australia. As the initial step, financial advisor has been recognized the holding price of the chosen organizations over the 2 years period from the date of issue. The outcomes of holding period over 2 years period are shown in the table below: ASX Code Name of the Company Issue Price Holding price over 2-year Holding period return over 2-year (%) APO APN Outdoor Group Limited 2.55 5.26 106.27 SIO Simonds Group Limited 1.78 0.42 -76.40 GFY Godfreys Group Limited 2.75 1.02 -62.91 OML Oohmedia Limited 1.93 4.7 143.52 LOV Lovisa Holdings Limited 2 3.8 90.00 EVO Evolve Education Group Limited 1 0 -100.00 SRF Surfstitch Group Limited 1 0.185 -81.50 Average return 2.71% It is identified from the above shown table that the industry is experiencing an average growth rate of 2.71% with regard to the holding period over the 2 years period from the date of issue of the individual organisation. The next step is to analyse the holding period return over the period of 2 years of the entire ordinary index. The table shown below are approving the same: ASX Code Name of the Company Issue Price Holding price over 2-year Holding period return over 2-year (%) AORD All ordinaries 5190.7002 5560.399902 7.12 It can be seen from the above table that the holding period returnsfor all the ordinary index was measured through the adjusted closing value on 1st December and the adjusted closing value on their completion of 2nd year. If the holding period return over the 2 years period from the consumer discretion is to be accounted for, then it can be stated that industry is growing rapidly as far as the long-term return from the IPO industry is to be considered. However, the holding period return over the 2 years period for the entire ordinary index has revealed the 7.12% return that is far better as compared to the holding period return of 2 years from the consumer discretionary. Therefore, it is obvious that the industry of consumer discretionary is under performing at present as compared to performance of the entireordinary index(Perera, 2016). It is a fact that the investment decision for the specific industry or firm greatly depends on the risk taking approach of the investor. As most of the individual investors are reluctant on the risk approach, the difference in the return may have an impact on the opportunity of investment. However, in this study, the entire ordinary index is revealing that they are comparatively better as compared to the 2 years holding period return for the consumer discretionary. Therefore, even if the outcomes from the consumer discretionary has revealed better performance in the short-term, with regard to long-term period, the investor shall not take into account the consumer discretionary as the selected investment industry(Ball, 2012). Analysis of empirical study The main objective of this part of the study is to recognize one stock market from any nation like Sweden, Canada, Italy, Greece, France and Austria stock market. The financial advisor here selected the France stock market and analysed an empirical study and scrutinizes the presence of short-term IPO is under pricing throughout the stock market. Analysis of the IPO firms enables better evaluation of the impact of corporate governance as the organizations corporate governance are expected to be clearer as compared to the history of the firm. Analysis of the IPO firms may deliver clear test for the contingency perspective of the agencies. Further, the IPO firms are recognized by various big-block holders under the listing of retained equity. For instance, where the founders are primarily the largest stakeholders for the IPO, there also exist the assorted group of private equity investors who are specialized in the high potential high growth ventures. Particularly, there are two different types of private equity investors under the IPO. They are: informal (BAs or business angels) or formal (VCs or venture capitalist), with distinct investment objectives. However, in the previous research on the governance, the variance among the Bas and VCs are not taken into account. This study analysed the performance of ownership concentration and difference kinds of investors for private equity firms that have undergone to IPOs recently in France. The common law nations are strong with regard to the legal protection for the minority share holders, whereas the protection of the investors is weakest under the French Civil law. Using various methodologies, the World Bank developed various indices for corporate governance that includes the Ease of shareholders Suits index that calculates the ability of the shareholders to strengthen the index for investors protection. As per this study, the Ease of shareholders strength and suits for the investor protection is only 5.0 and 5.3 in France as compared to 7.0 and 8.0 of UK(Wang, 2015) The concentration of ownership represents the requirement but there does not exist the sufficient circumstances fro mitigating the conflicts among the agencies that are taking place within the IPO and it may require the assistance from the reputational considerations. Further, the investors from private equity like VCs are the bigger shareholders that are able to remove the risk of under pricing with their reputational capital. These facts led to the view that the presence of VC will mitigate the issue of under pricing of the IPO. Two crucial kinds of private equity investors are there who are majorly involved in the high potential high growth governance that includes the ventures of IPOs: Bas and VCs Involvement of various financiers in the entrepreneurial organizations is contingent upon the risk factors of the venture, for instance, the ownership of the founder, his experience and wide involvement. Thus, there exists the risk of endogeneity as the private equity firms are analysed to retain their ownership. Therefore, performance is the main function that is endogenously connected with the variable of ownership(Cirillo, 2015). It is identified that the average price premium for 72% advises the investors to pay a considerable higher price for offer as compared to the book value of the equity and thus are optimistic regarding the growth prospects of the newly listed organizations. The average adjusted return on assets is equal to 0.5% that suggests that the performance of the IPO firms is not significantly different from the industry average. On an average, the VCs and Bas owned the 8.3% and 4.3% out of the total equity from the IPO organizations. This is significantly below from the founder ownership of 39%. The value of the VC investments in UK during 2007 was equal to 1.69% of GDP as compared to only 0.66% in France. VCs in France are less likely to monitor the investees as well as independent as compared to their counterparts in UK. BAs in the UK are expected to form networks in association with BA networks in the UK representing 36% of all European BA networks. It has been concluded from the study that there is a strong indication that the presence and the concentration of ownership for private equity investors can be used as a powerful tool within the corporate governance. Similarly, the various kinds of private equity investors can lead to various performance results that are depended on the origin of the nation of the organization. The study further provided an empirical and theoretical analysis for the effect of various kinds of block-holders, concentrated ownership and their impact on the performance of IPO in the two mature markets of North America with various institutional settings. References Asker, F.-M. a. L., 2014. Review of Financial Studies. s.l.:s.n. Ball, 2012. Short run money demand. Journal of Monetary Economics, pp. 622-633. Cirillo, R. a. A., 2015. Management Decison. s.l.:s.n. Dongxin, X. H. W. a. E., 2014. Disagreement on Institutional Investor's Bids and IPO Pricing Mechanism. Economic Reserach Journal, p. 013. Moorman, W. a., 2015. Going Public. Journal of Marketing Research, pp. 694-709. Perera, K., 2016. Evidence of from Australian Initial. Journal of Insurance and Financial Management, pp. 505-525. Sharma, M., 2017. Nexus among Holding Periods. The Journal of Accounting and Mangement. Shi, L. a., 2016. An Empirical Reserach: Modern Economy. s.l.:s.n. Urusua, B. a., 2017. Reserach in Economics. s.l.:s.n. Wang, L. a., 2015. The cross section of expected holding period returns and their dynamics. Journal of Financial Economics, pp. 505-525. Zervoudi, S. a., 2016. Review of Behavioral Finance. s.l.:s.n. Link to access empirical article: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/17877/2/Strategic%20Management%20Journal_31_5_2010.pdf

Internet A Medium or a Message Essay Example For Students

Internet: A Medium or a Message? Essay Sam Vaknins Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web SitesThe State of the Net: An Interim Report about the Future of the InternetWho are the participants who constitute the Internet?Users connected to the net and interacting with itThe communications lines and the communications equipmentThe intermediaries (e.g. the suppliers of on-line information or access providers). Hardware manufacturersSoftware authors and manufacturers (browsers, site development tools, specific applications, smart agents, search engines and others). The Hitchhikers (search engines, smart agents, Artificial Intelligence AI tools and more)Content producers and providersSuppliers of financial wherewithal (currently corporate and institutional cash to be replaced, in the future, by advertising money)The fate of each of these components separately and in solidarity will determine the fate of the Internet. The Internet has hitherto been considered the territory of computer wizards. Thus, any attempt at predicting its future applied the Olympic formula : Faster, Higher, Stronger to its hardware and software determinants. Media experts, sociologists, psychologists, advertising and marketing executives were left out of the collective effort to determine the future face of the Internet. The Internet cannot be currently defined as a medium. It does not function as one rather it is a very disordered library, mostly incorporating the writings of non-distinguished megalomaniacs. It is the ultimate Narcissistic experience. Yet, ever since the invention of television there hasnt been anything as begging to become a medium as the Internet is. Three analogies spring to mind when contemplating the Internet in its current state:A chaotic libraryA neural network or the equivalent of a telephony network in the makingA new continent These metaphors prove to be very useful (even business-wise). They pe rmit us to define the commercial opportunities embedded in the Internet. Yet, they fail to assist us in predicting its future which lies in its transformation into a medium. How does an invention become a medium? What happens to it when it does become one? What is the thin line separating the basic function of the invention from its flowering in the form of a new medium? In other words: when can we tell that some technological advance gave birth to a new medium? This work also deals with the image of the Internet once transformed into a medium. The Internet has the most unusual attributes in the history of the media. It has no central structure or organization. It is hardware and software independent. It (almost) cannot be subjected to legislation or to regulation. Take on example: downloading music from the internet is it an act of recording music? This has been the crux of the legal battle between Diamond Multimedia (the manufacturers of the Rio MP3 device) and the recording indu stry in America. Its data transfer channels are not linear they are random. Most of its broadcast cannot be received at all. It allows for the narrowest of narrowcasting through the use of e-mail mailing lists, discussion groups, message boards and chats. And this is but a small portion of an impressive list of oddities. This idiosyncrasy will shape the nature of the Internet as a medium. Growing out of bizarre roots it is bound to yield strange fruit as a medium. So what are the business opportunities out there? I believe that they are to be found in two broad categories :The shaping of the Internet as a medium, using the right software and hardwareThe shaping of the Internet as a medium through contents The Map of Terra InterneticaThe Users How many users are there ? How many of them have access to the Web (World Wide Web WWW) and use it ? There are no unequivocal statistics. Those who presume to give the answers (including the ISOC the Internet SOCiety) rely on very partial and biased resources. Others just bluff for very unscientific reasons. Yet, all agree that there are, at least, 70 million active participants in North America (the Nielsen and Commerce-Net reports). The future is, inevitably, even more vague than the present. Authoritative consultancy firms predict 66 million active users in 10 years time. IBM envisages 700 million users. MCI is more modest with 300 million. At the end of 1999 there were 130 million users. This is not serious futurology. It is better to ignore these predictions and to face facts. The Internet an Elitist and Chauvinistic Medium The average user of the Internet is young (30), with academic background and high income. The percentage of the educated and the well-to-do among the users of the Web is three times as high as their proportion in the population. This is fast changing only because their children are joining them (6 million already had access to the Internet at the end of 1996 to be joined by another 24 milli on by the end of the decade). This may change only due to presidential initiatives (from Al Gore in the USA to Mahatir Mohammed in Malaysia), corporate largesse (Microsoft, for one) and institutional involvement (Open Society in Eastern Europe). These efforts will spread the benefits of this all-powerful tool among the less privileged. A bit more than 50% of all users are men and they are responsible for 60% of the activity in the net (as measured by data volume). Women seem to limit themselves to electronic mail (e-mail) and to electronic shopping of goods and services. Men prefer information because knowledge is power. Most of the users are of the experiencer variety. They are leaders of social change and innovative. This breed populates universities, fashionable neighbourhoods and trendy vocations. This is why many wonder if the Internet is not just another such fad, albeit an incredibly resilient one. Though most users have home access to the Internet they still prefer to acces s it from work, at the employers expense, though this preference is slight and being eroded. Most users are, therefore, exploitative in nature. Still, we must not forget that there are 37 million households of self employed and this possibly distorts the statistical picture somewhat. The Internet a North American Phenomenon Not European, not African, not Asian (with the exception of Israel and Japan), not Russian , nor a Third World phenomenon. It belongs squarely to the wealthy, sated world. It is the indulgence of those who have all else and their biggest worry is their choice of entertainment for the night. Between 60-70% of all Internet users live in the USA, 5% in Canada. They are rare in Europe (except in Germany and in Scandinavia). The Internet lost to the French Minitel because the latter provides more locally relevant content. Communications Most computer owners possess a 28,800 bps modem. This is much like driving a bicycle in a German Autobahn. The 56,600 bps is gradual ly replacing its slower predecessor (28% of computers with modem) but even it is hardly sufficient. To begin to enjoy video and audio (especially the former) data transfer rates need to be 50 times larger. Half the households in the USA have at least 2 telephones and one of them is usually dedicated to data processing (faxes or fax-modems). The ISDN could constitute the mid-term solution. This data transfer network is fairly speedy and covers 70% of the territory of the USA. It is growing by 100% annually and its sales topped 10 billion USD in 1995/6. Unfortunately, it is quite clear that ISDN is not THE answer. It is too slow, to user-unfriendly, has a bad interface with other network types. There is no point in investing in temporary solutions when the right solution is staring the Internet in the face, though it is not implemented due to political circumstances. A cable modem is 80 times speedier than the ISDN and 700 times faster than a 14,400 bps modem. However, is does have problems in accommodating two-way data transfer. There is also need to connect the fibre optic infrastructure which typifies cables to the old copper coaxial infrastructure which characterizes telephony. Cable users engage specially customized LANs (Ethernet) and the hardware is expensive (though equipment prices are forecast to collapse as demand increases). Cable companies simply did not invest in developing the technology : the law (prior to the 1996 Communications Act) forbade them to do anything that was not one way transfer of video by cables. Now, with the more liberal regulative environment, it is a mere question of time until the technology is found. Actually, most consumers single out bad customer relations as their biggest problem with the cable companies rather than technology. Experiments conducted with cable modems led to a doubling of usage time (from an average of 24 to 47 hours per month per user) which was wholly attributable to the increased speed. This comes clo se to a revolution in the culture and in the allocation of leisure time. Numerically speaking : 7 million households in the USA will be fitted with a two-way data transfer cable modem. This is a small number and it is anyones guess if it constitutes a critical mass. Sales of such modem amount to 1.3 billion USD annually. 50% of all cable subscribers also have a PC at home. To me it seems that the merging of the two technologies is inevitable. Other technological solutions such as the ADSL are being developed and implemented. Hardware and Software Most of the Internet users (62%) work with a Windows operating system. About 21% own a Mackintosh (much stronger graphically and more user-friendly). Only 7% continue to work on UNIX based systems (which, historically, fathered the Internet) and this number is fast declining. A strong entrant is the free source LINUX operating system. Virtually all the users employ a browsing software : most of them (56%) use Netscapes products (Navigato r and Communicator) and the minority shares the antiquated Mosaic (the SPRY version, for instance) and Microsofts Explorer (close to 40% of the market). The sales of browsers are expected to hit 4 billion USD in the year 2000 (Hembrecht and Quist). Browsers are in for a great transformation. Most of them will have 3-D, advanced audio, telephony / voice mail (v-mail), e-mail and conferencing capabilities integrated into the same session (and this includes video conferencing in the further future). They will become self-customizing, intelligent, Internet interfaces : they will memorize the history of usage and user preferences and adapt themselves accordingly. They will allow content-specificity : unidentifiable smart agents will scour the Internet, make recommendations, compare prices, order goods and services and customize contents in line with self-adjusting user profiles. Two important technological developments must be considered: Palmtops the ultimate personal (and office) comm unicators, easy to carry and providing Internet access anywhere, independent of suppliers and providers and of physical infrastructure (in an aeroplane, in the field, in a cinema). The second : wireless data transfer and wireless e-mail, whether through pagers, cellular phones, or through more sophisticated apparatus and ybrids such as smart phones. Geotechs products are an excellent example : e-mail, faxes, telephone calls and a connection to the Internet and to other, public and corporate, or proprietary, databases all provided by the same gadget. This is the embodiment of the electronic, physically detached, office. We have no way of gauging or intelligently guessing the part of the mobile Internet in the total future Internet market but it is likely to outweigh the fixed part. Wireless internet meshes well with the trend of pervasive computing and the intelligent household. Household gadgets such as microwave ovens, refrigerators and so on will connect to the internet via a w ireless interface to cull data, download information, order goods and services and perform basic maintenance functions upon themselves. Suppliers and Intermediaries Parasitic intermediaries occupy each stage in the Internet chain of food. Access to the Internet? Internet Service Providers (ISP) Content? content suppliers and so on. Some of these intermediaries are doomed to gradually fade or to suffer a substantial diminishing of their share of the market. What justification was there for the existence of the likes of CompuServe and America On line (AOL) had they not matched up with portals and content providers? Before the 1998/9 spat of mergers and acquisitions, in 1996 it was predicted that they will have only 16 million subscribers in the USA by 1997 and this was before the technical and corporate upheavals in AOL. By way of comparison, even today, ISPs have twice as many subscribers (worldwide). Admittedly, this adversely affects the quality of the service the infrastructure maintained by the phone companies is slow and often succumbs to bottlenecks. The unequivocal intention of the telephony giants to become major players in the Internet market should also be taken into account. The phone companies will, thus, play a dual role : they will supply the infrastructure to their competitors (sometimes, within a real or actual monopoly) and they will compete with their clients. The same can be said about the cable companies. Controlling the last mile to the users abode is the next big business of the internet. Companies such as AOL are disadvantaged by these trends. It is imperative for AOL to obtain equal access to the cable companys backbone and infrastructure if it wants to survive. No wonder that many of the ISPs judge this to be an unfair fight. On the other hand, it takes a minimal investment to become an ISP. 200 modems (which cost 200 USD each) are enough to satisfy the needs of 2000 average users who generate an income of 500,000 USD per annum to t he ISP. Routers are equally as cheap nowadays. This is a nice return on the ISPs capital, undoubtedly. The Hitchhikers The Web houses the equivalent of 10 million books. Search Engine applications are used to locate specific information in this impressive, constantly proliferating library. They will be replaced, in the near future, by Knowledge Structures gigantic encyclopaedias, whose text will contain references (hyperlinks) to other, relevant, sites. The far future will witness the emergence of the Intelligent Archives and the Personal Papers (read further for detailed explanations). Some software applications will summarize content, others will index and automatically reference and hyperlink texts (virtual bibliographies). An average user will have on-going interest in 500 sites. Special software will be needed to manage address books (bookmarks, favourites) and contents (Intelligent Addressbooks). The phenomenon of search engines dedicated to search a number of search engines simultaneously will grow (Hyper-engines). Hyperengines will work in the background and download hyperlinks and advertising (the latter is essential to secure the financial interest of site developers and owners). Statistical software which tracks (how long was what done), monitors (what did they do while in) and counts (how many) visitors to sites exist. Some of these applications have back-office facilities (accounting, follow-up, collections, even tele-marketing). They all provide time trails and some allow for auditing. This is but a small fragment of the rapidly developing net-scape : people and enterprises who make a living off the Internet craze rather than off the Internet itself. Everyone knows that there is more money in lecturing about how to make money in the Internet than in the Internet itself. This maxim still holds true despite the 32 billion US dollars in E-commerce in 1998. Content Suppliers This is the underprivileged sector of the Internet. They all lose money (e xcept sites offering basic, standardized goods books, CDs and sites connected to tourism). No one thanks them for content produced with the investment of a lot of effort and a lot of money. A really good, fully commerce enabled site costs up to 5,000,000 USD, excluding current updating site maintenance and customer and visitor services. They are constantly criticized for lack of creativity or for too much creativity. More and more is asked of them. They are exploited by intermediaries, hitchhikers and other parasites. Most of them produce Web content. 32 million men and women constantly access the Web but this number stands to grow (the median prediction: 120 million). Yet, while the Web is used by 35% of those with access to the Internet e-mail is used by more than 50%. E-mail is by far the most common function and specialized applications (Eudora, Internet Mail, Microsoft Exchange) have upgraded it to a state of art. Most of the users like to surf (browse, visit sites) the n et without reason or goal in mind. This makes it difficult to use traditional marketing parlance: what is the meaning of targeted audiences market shares in this context? If a surfer visits sites dealing with aberrant sex and nuclear physics during the same session what to make of it? People like the very act of surfing, then they want to be entertained, then they use the Internet as a working tool, mostly in the service of their employer, who, usually foots the bill. Users love free downloads (mainly software). Free is a key word in the Internet : it used to belong to the US Government and to a bunch of universities. Users like information, with emphasis on news and data about new products. But they do not like to shop on the net yet. Only 38% of all surfers made a purchase during 1998. 67% of them adore virtual sex. 50% of the sites most often visited are porno sites (this is reminiscent of the early days of the Video Cassette Recorder VCR). A- propos video : people dedicate th e same amount of time to watching video cassettes as they do to surfing the net. Sex is followed by music, sports, health, television, computers, cinema, politics, pets and cooking sites. People are drawn to interactive games. The Internet will shortly enable people to gamble, if not hampered by legislation. 10 billion USD in gambling money are predicted to pass through the net. This makes sense: nothing like a computer to provide immediate (monetary and psychological) rewards. Commerce on the net is another favourite. The Internet is a perfect medium for the sale of software and other digital products (e-books). The problem of data security is on its way to being solved with the SET (or other) world standard. The Internet has more than 100 virtual shopping malls and they were visited by 2.5 million shoppers in 1995 (probably by double this number in 1996). The predictions for 1999 : between 1-5 billion USD of net shopping (plus 2 billion USD through on-line information providers, s uch as CompuServe and AOL) proved woefully inaccurate. The actual number in 1998 was 7 times the prediction for 1999. It is also widely believed that circa 20% of the family budget will pass through the Internet as e-money and this amounts to 150 billion USD. The Internet will become a giant inter-bank clearing and varied banking and investment services will be provided through it. Basically, everything can be done through the Internet : looking for a job, for instance. Some sites already sport classified ads. This is not a bad way to defray expenses, though most classified ads are free (it is the advertising they attract that matters). Another developing trend is website-rating and critique. It will be treated the way todays printed editions are. It will have a limited influence on the consumption decisions of some of them. Browsers already display a button labelled Whats New and another one called Whats Hot. Most Search Engines recommend specific sites. Users are cautious. Studie s discovered that no user, no matter how heavy, has visited more than 200 site, a minuscule number. Also, a random at times, the wrong selection for the user. Web Critics, who work today mainly for the printed press, will publish their wares in the net and will attach themselves to intelligent software which will hyperlink, recommend and refer. Some web critics will be identified with specific applications really, expert systems which will embody their knowledge and experience. The MoneyWhere will the capital needed to finance all these developments come from? Again, there are two schools : One that says that sites will be financed through advertising and so will search engines, applets and any other application accessed by users. The second version is simpler and allows non-commercial content to exist : It proposes to collect negligible sums (cents or fractions of cents) from every user for every visit. These accumulated cents will enable the owners of old sites to update and t o maintain them and encourage entrepreneurs to develop new ones. The adherents of the first school point at the 5 million USD invested in advertising during 1995 and to the 60 million or so invested during 1996. Its opponents point exactly at the same numbers : ridiculously small when contrasted with more conventional advertising modes. The potential of advertising on the net is limited to 1.5 billion USD annually in 1998, thundered the pessimists (many think that even half of that would be very nice). The actual figure was double the prediction but still woefully small and inadequate to support the internets content development. Compare these figures to the sale of Internet software (4 billion), Internet hardware (3 billion), Internet access provision (4.2 billion in 1995). Hembrecht and Quist estimate that Internet related industries scoop up 23.2 billion USD annually (A report released in mid-1996). And what will follow advertising? The consumer will interact and the product will be posted to him. This is a much slower and more enervating epilogue to the exciting affair of ordering through the net at the speed of light. Too many consumers still complain that they did not receive what they ordered. The solution may lie in the integration of advertising and content. Pointcast, for instance, integrated advertising into its news broadcasts, continuously streamed to the users screen, even when inactive (active screen saver and ticker). Downloading of digital music, video and text (e-books) will lead to immediate gratification of the consumer and will increase the efficacy of advertising. Whatever the case may be, a uniform, agreed upon system of rating as a basis for charging advertisers, is highly needed. There is also the question of what does the advertiser pay for? Many advertisers (Procter and Gamble, for instance) refuse to pay by the number of hits or impressions (=entries, visits to a site). They agree to pay only according to the number of the times tha t their advertisement was hit. Resistance To Technology EssayInternet Space can be easily purchased or created. The investment is low. Then, infrastructure can be erected for a shopping mall, for free home pages, for a portal, or for another purpose. It is precisely this infrastructure that the developer can later sell, lease, franchise, or rent out. At the beginning, only members of the fringes and the avant-garde (inventors, risk assuming entrepreneurs, gamblers) invest in a new invention. The invention of a new communications technology is mostly accompanied by devastating silence. No one knows to say what are the optimal uses of the invention (in other words, what is its future). Many mostly members of the scientific and business elites argue that there is no real need for the invention and that it substitutes a new and untried way for more veteran and safe modes of doing the same thing (by implication : so why assume the risk?) These criticisms are founded: To start with, there is, indeed, no need for th e new medium. A new medium invents itself and the need for it. It also generates its own market to satisfy this newly found need. Two prime examples are: the personal computer and the compact disc. When the PC was invented, its uses were completely unclear. Its performance was lacking, its abilities limited, it was horribly user unfriendly. It suffered from faulty design, absent user comfort and ease of use and required considerable professional knowledge to operate. The worst part was that this knowledge was unique to the new invention (not portable). It reduced labour mobility and limited their professional horizons. There were many gripes among those assigned to tame the new beast. The PC was thought of, at the beginning, as a sophisticated gaming machine, an electronic baby-sitter. As the presence of a keyboard was detected and as the professional horizon cleared it was thought of in terms of a glorified typewriter or spreadsheet. It was used mainly as a word processor (and its existence justified solely on these grounds). The spreadsheet was the first real application and it demonstrated the advantages inherent to this new machine (mainly flexibility and speed). Still, it was more (speed) of the same. A quicker ruler or pen and paper. What was the difference between this and a hand held calculator (some of them already had computing, memory and programming features)? The PC was recognized as a medium only 30 years after it was invented with the introduction of multimedia software. All this time, the computer continued to spin off markets and secondary markets, needs and professional specialities. The talk as always how to improve on existing markets and solutions. The Internet is the computers first important breakthrough. Hitherto the computer was only quantitatively different the multimedia and the Internet have made him qualitatively superior, actually, sui generis, unique. This, precisely, is the ghost haunting the Internet: It has been invented, is maintained and is operated by computer professionals. For decades these people have been conditioned to think in Olympic terms: more, stronger, higher. Not: new, unprecedented, non-existent. To improve not to invent. They stumbled across the Internet it invented itself despite its own creators. Computer professionals (hardware and software experts alike) are linear thinkers. The Internet is non linear and modular. It is still the time of the computermen in the Internet. There is still a lot to be done in improving technological prowess and powers. But their control of the contents is waning and there they are being gradually replaced by communicators, creative people, advertising executives, psychologists and the totally unpredictable masses who flock to flaunt their home pages. These all are attuned to the user, his mental needs and his information and entertainment preferences. The compact disc is a different tale. It was intentionally invented to improve upon an existing tech nology (basically, Edisons Gramophone). Market-wise, this was a major gamble : the improvement was, at first, debatable (many said that the sound quality of the first generation of compact discs was inferior to that of its contemporary record players). Consumers had to be convinced to change both software and hardware and to dish out thousands of dollars just to listen to what the manufacturers claimed was better quality Bach. A better argument was the longer life of the software (though contrasted with the limited life expectancy of the consumer, some of the first sales pitches sounded absolutely morbid). The computer suffered from unclear positioning. The compact disc was very clear as to its main functions but had a rough time convincing the consumers. Every medium is first controlled by the technical people. Gutenberg was a printer not a publisher. Yet, he is the worlds most famous publisher. The technical cadre is joined by dubious or small-scale entrepreneurs and, together, they establish ventures with no clear vision, market-oriented thinking, or orderly plan of action. The legislator is also dumbfounded and does not grasp what is happening thus, there is no legislation to regulate the use of the medium. Witness the initial confusion concerning copyrighted software and the copyrights of ROM embedded software. Abuse or under-utilization of resources ow. Recall the sale of radio frequencies to the first cellular phone operators in the West a situation which repeats itself in Eastern and Central Europe nowadays. But then more complex transactions exactly as in real estate in real life begin to make their appearance. This distinction is important. While in real life it is possible to sell an undeveloped plot of land no one will buy pages. The supply of these is unlimited their scarcity (and, therefore, their virtual price) is zero. The second example involves the utilization of a site rather than its mere availability. A developer could open a site wherein first time authors will be able to publish their first manuscript for a fee. Evidently, such a fee will be a fraction of what it would take to publish a real life book. The author could collect money for any downloading of his book and split it with the site developer. The potential buyers will be provided with access to the contents and to a chapter of the books. This is currently being done by a few fledgling firms but a full scale publishing industry has not yet developed. The Life of a MediumThe internet is simply the latest in a series of networks which revolutionized our lives. A century before the internet, the telegraph and the telephone have been similarly heralded as global and transforming. Every medium of communications goes through the same evolutionary cycle: Anarchy The Public Phase At this stage, the medium and the resources attached to it are very cheap, accessible, under no regulatory constraints. The public sector steps in : higher education institution s, religious institutions, government, not for profit organizations, non governmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions, etc. Bedevilled by limited financial resources, they regard the new medium as a cost effective way of disseminating their messages. The Internet was not exempt from this phase which ended only a few months ago. It started with a complete computer anarchy manifested in ad hoc networks, local networks, networks of organizations (mainly universities and organs of the government such as DARPA, a part of the defence establishment, in the USA). Non commercial entities jumped on the bandwagon and started sewing these networks together (an activity fully subsidized by government funds). The result was a globe encompassing network of academic institutions. The American Pentagon established the network of all networks, the ARPANET. Other government departments joined the fray, headed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) which withdrew only lately from the Internet. The Internet (with a different name) became public property with access granted to the chosen few. Radio took precisely this course. Radio transmissions started in the USA in 1920. Those were anarchic broadcasts with no discernible regularity. Non commercial organizations and not for profit organizations began their own broadcasts and even created radio broadcasting infrastructure (albeit of the cheap and local kind) dedicated to their audiences. Trade unions, certain educational institutions and religious groups commenced public radio broadcasts. The Commercial Phase When the users (e.g., listeners in the case of the radio, or owners of PCs and modems in the example of the Internet) reach a critical mass the business sector is alerted. In the name of capitalist ideology (another religion, really) it demands privatization of the medium. This harps on very sensitive strings in every Western soul : the efficient allocation of resources which is the result of competition, corruption and inefficiency naturally associated with the public sector (Other Peoples Money OPM), the ulterior motives of members of the ruling political echelons (the infamous American Paranoia), a lack of variety and of catering to the tastes and interests of certain audiences, the equation private enterprise = democracy and more. The end result is the same : the private sector takes over the medium from below (makes offers to the owners or operators of the medium that they cannot possibly refuse) or from above (successful lobbying in the corridors of power leads to the appropriate legislation and the medium is privatized). Every privatization especially that of a medium provokes public opposition. There are (usually founded) suspicions that the interests of the public were compromised and sacrificed on the altar of commercialization and rating. Fears of monopolization and cartelization of the medium are evoked and justified, in due time. Otherwise, there is fear of the concentration of control of the medium in a few hands. All these things do happen but the pace is so slow that the initial fears are forgotten and public attention reverts to fresher issues. A new Communications Act was legislated in the USA in 1934. It was meant to transform radio frequencies into a national resource to be sold to the private sector which will use it to transmit radio signals to receivers. In other words : the radio was passed on to private and commercial hands. Public radio was doomed to be marginalized. The American administration withdrew from its last major involvement in the Internet in April 1995, when the NSF ceased to finance some of the networks and, thus, privatized its hitherto heavy involvement in the net. A new Communications Act was legislated in 1996. It permitted organized anarchy. It allowed media operators to invade each others territories. Phone companies will be allowed to transmit video and cable companies will be allowed to transmit telephony, for instance. T his is all phased over a long period of time still, it is a revolution whose magnitude is difficult to gauge and whose consequences defy imagination. It carries an equally momentous price tag official censorship. Voluntary censorship, to be sure, somewhat toothless standardization and enforcement authorities, to be sure still, a censorship with its own institutions to boot. The private sector reacted by threatening litigation but, beneath the surface it is caving in to pressure and temptation, constructing its own censorship codes both in the cable and in the internet media. Institutionalization This phase is the next in the Internets history, though, it seems, unbeknownst to it. It is characterized by enhanced activities of legislation. Legislators, on all levels, discover the medium and lurch at it passionately. Resources which were considered free, suddenly are transformed to national treasures not to be dispensed with cheaply, casually and with frivolity. It is conceivable t hat certain parts of the Internet will be nationalized (for instance, in the form of a licensing requirement) and tendered to the private sector. Legislation will be enacted which will deal with permitted and disallowed content (obscenity ? incitement ? racial or gender bias ?) No medium in the USA (not to mention the wide world) has eschewed such legislation. There are sure to be demands to allocate time (or space, or software, or content, or hardware) to minorities, to public affairs, to community business. This is a tax that the business sector will have to pay to fend off the eager legislator and his nuisance value. All this is bound to lead to a monopolization of hosts and servers. The important broadcast channels will diminish in number and be subjected to severe content restrictions. Sites which will not succumb to these requirements will be deleted or neutralized. Content guidelines (euphemism for censorship) exist, even as we write, in all major content providers (CompuSer ve, AOL, Prodigy). The Bloodbath This is the phase of consolidation. The number of players is severely reduced. The number of browser types will be limited to 2-3 (Netscape, Microsoft and which else ?). Networks will merge to form privately owned mega-networks. Servers will merge to form hyper-servers run on supercomputers. The number of ISPs will be considerably down. 50 companies ruled the greater part of the media markets in the USA in 1983. The number in 1995 was 18. At the end of the century they will number 6. This is the stage when companies fighting for financial survival strive to acquire as many users/listeners/viewers as possible. The programming is shallowed to the lowest (and widest) common denominator. Shallow programming dominates as long as the bloodbath proceeds. From Rags to Riches Tough competition produces four processes: 1. A Major Drop in Hardware PricesThis happens in every medium but it doubly applies to a computer-dependent medium, such as the Internet. Computer technology seems to abide by Moors Law which says that the number of transistors which can be put on a chip doubles itself every 18 months. As a r