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Electronic Final Exam Paper - 1096 Words

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA END OF SEMESTER EXAMINATION SEMESTER I, 2005/2006 SESSION KULLIYYAH OF ENGINEERING Programme Time Duration : ENGINEERING : 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm : 3 Hrs Section(s) : 3 Level of Study Date : UG 1 : 24/10/2005 Course Code : ECE 1312 Course Title : Electronics This Question Paper Consists of Eight (8) Printed Pages (Including Cover Page) With Six (6) Questions. INSTRUCTION(S) TO CANDIDATES DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOU ARE ASKED TO DO SO †¢ †¢ †¢ Total marks of this examination is 100. This examination is worth 40% of the total assessment. This examination consists of two parts. You are required to answer all questions from part A and choose any 3 (three) questions from part B. Any form of†¦show more content†¦4.: i. each stage ii. overall cascade connection. (8 marks) 500ÃŽ © Ri1= 1MÃŽ © Ri2= 1500ÃŽ © 100ÃŽ © RL= 100ÃŽ © Fig. 4. Q.4 [20 marks] (a) Refer to Fig. 5., sketch the output waveform of the circuit. (2 marks) Fig. 5. (b) Draw the circuit diagrams of a two-input diode AND gate and a two-input diode OR gate. (6 marks) 5 Electronics ECE 1312 (c) Refer to Fig. 6.: Fig. 6. i. Determine the range of RL (RLmax , RLmin) and IL (ILmax , ILmin) that will result in the voltage across RL to be maintained at 10 V. Plot VL versus RL and VL versus IL. (10 marks) Determine the maximum power rating of the diode. ii. (2 marks) Q.5 [20 marks] (a) Refer to the common-emitter characteristics of a BJT of Fig. 7.: i. ii. iii. Find the value of ÃŽ ²dc at an operating point of VCE = +15 V and IC = 2.5 mA. (2 marks) Find the value of ÃŽ ± corresponding to the ÃŽ ²dc value. (2 marks) The following values are given as design data for the npn BJT fixed bias circuit: VCC = 12 V, RC = 2.2 kÃŽ ©. Draw the fixed-bias circuit and find RB value using ÃŽ ²dc value obtained from part (i). (6 marks) 6 Electronics ECE 1312 Fig. 7. Refer to the common-emitter amplifier configuration of Fig. 8: i. ii. Draw the small–signal midband ac equivalent circuit. (b) (2 marks) Given VCC = 15 V, ÃŽ ² = 100, VT = 0.026 V, draw the dc equivalent circuit and find ICQ. FindShow MoreRelatedreaction essay about cinderella man1210 Words   |  5 Pagesall of your papers, notes, and other information in one location. 2. Turn in all homework and projects during class on the day they are due. No late work will be accepted, unless an excused absence occurs on the day the assignment is due. 3. Check your Ball State email at least once per day. 4. Come to class on time every day. Be prepared for class. That means having your textbook, your homework, paper, a writing utensil, etc. ready to use. 5. Turn off cell phones and other electronic devices beforeRead MoreDigital Exams On The Rise Essay1390 Words   |  6 Pagesstudent’s life today, both in and outside of school. But can they take their notebook computers into exams? 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Information Systems Project Management

Question: Discuss about theInformation Systems Project Management. Answer: Introduction This report is intended to provide the summary of the expected outcome and result provided to the client with the help of new information system software. To propose a change and developing and implementing strategies for it needs effective work of whole team. The solution selected is following the structure of agile model. The project required to develop a software system for a major theme park company. This project will help the part management to satisfy customers and enhance their satisfaction through excellent and quick services. It also helps to develop communication within employees of the park and handle all backend work. This project manages information and important record of the company. Client, customers and employees records will store in database and the system will available through mobile app, websites and staff desktop. The software system designed to overcome limitations of previous system. Recommendations This section discusses several recommendations for the project which will help to deliver an error free, updated and modernizes information system. External Quality Assurance: The analysis and quality assurance is mandatory to maintain clarity in project system which has to be implemented for theme park. The business can experience loss in case of ineffective quality of project and lack of interaction between staff and customers (Fisher and Lovell, 2008). The loyal customers should get special benefits and incentives in rents to increase customer satisfaction. The project should be checked on external quality assurance measures to which confirm its efficiency level. The solution need to be proposed to improve the current business situation. The goal is to provide an information system which fulfills the front line staff and customers needs and meet expectations of management and develop a replacement for current Customer Relationship Management system and associated park pass. Communications Management: For successful implementation of project a detailed communication management plan is must. It is recommended that everyone involved in the project like management, stakeholders, sponsors should know about the progress and outcome of the project. Hence, the communication management plan prepared which incorporate information about all the activities, update and status report of the project and it is discussed in weekly and monthly meetings. Active and interpersonal communication within team creates team bonding which helps in effective project development process (Fletcher, 2013). To maintain the interest of the stakeholders should be priority of this project. Here, the stakeholders are owner, management of theme park, its employees, customers, government agency and client. Hence, stakeholders should know about updates of the project and its outcome and it would become possible through communication plan. Who/ individuals incorporated Information required When required Format Stakeholders: Owner, staff, and management Deliver objective and scope of project Before beginning project Conduct initiation meeting Stakeholders Provide information about roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in project development. At the time of starting the project Start date Meeting Entire team of a project Provide information about tasks and completion time It is also scheduled regularly on particular day Entire team would recommended to communicate once in a week Conduct a scheduled meeting of team members Stakeholders Update project progress till date Scheduled meeting as per project team, either weekly or monthly. Distribute project status report through emails, or hardcopy Only sponsor and project manager Communicate with sponsors about progress of project and problems, if any? Approve the required changes Conduct meeting once in a month But, in case of any problem can be called any time to confirm changes Sponsor meeting Development Approach (Agile Model) It is recommended to use agile development model for effective implementation of the project. The stages followed in this model are similar to waterfall model and that are information gathering, design, analysis, coding, development and testing (Anderson, 2004). It improves the HR and project team management process. The agile model implementation promotes creativity in development team and help in providing fast solution (Buresh, 2008). It is a flexible model and any team can adopt it quickly. This ensures faster solution because at the end of every stage the team member can revise their progress and project output which is not possible in waterfall model. The team can propose a prototype to customer through which they can finalize the requirement. The agile approach leads development of open ended projects (Cao, 2006). A product can be developed by small teams. The principle of this model is continuous design. The testing and improvements in project are based on quick feedbacks. Self organizing teams can interchange roles as per requirement basis. Team Formation: The project manager has responsibility to organize his team, gather requirements from client and design the prototype of the project. This prototype is further presented in front of client and taken their feedback and suggestions. The team of this project can incorporate ten to fifteen developers. Important key players in team formation are project client, project sponsors, project managers, project team members and steering committee. The deliverables needs to be achieved according to the standards and hence, roles and responsibilities among the team members need to be divided equally or according to individual potential (Christensen, 1997). The project manager assign tasks to developers, takes continuous updates about given tasks and suggest changes, if needed. The manager of project manager has responsibility to finish the project in given timeline. Each team member or developer has the responsibility to accomplish the given task effectively within the proper deadline. They should work as per the structure of the project and complete tasks assigned to them. Roles of Sponsors and Steering Committee: Project sponsor is also known as director of a project and they have important role in project development and its delivery to Theme Park Company. The sponsor has the responsibility to make available the resources required to accomplish the project. Project design, its operations and activities are strongly impacted due to decision of project sponsor. The steering committee has special responsibility and hence, it takes constant watch on project development process and project manager also need to inform constant updates of the project. This committee has to role of analyzing the environment, and provides advice and recommendations according to it. Scheduling Techniques: The important and most used technique to schedule any project is Gantt chart. The Gantt chart can use to align the days, weeks, or months required accomplishing particular activity (Cameron, Seher and Crawley, 2010). The milestone dates can be confirmed to deliver update about the software system. The project must accomplish within given timeframe which decides the success of the project. It is significant to decide timeline or schedule for a project and further ensure completion of each task according to given timeframe (Tavani, 2007). The use of scheduling technique like Gantt chart enhances simplicity and flexibility of work as well as reduces the possibility of confusion during project development. Activities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Initiation and project scope plan Stakeholder analysis and develop communication plan Divide roles and responsibilities Information gathering Design Analysis Coding Testing Figure: Gantt Chart The Gantt chart provides immediate visual representation to track progress of your project.. It will help in monitoring the progress of the project and shows the responsibilities assigned. Conclusion The project developed and implemented for a theme park company which searching for effective alternative for its current CRM system. The recommendation provided can be used in the development and implementation of the project. The recommended strategies help development team to derive the requirement and accomplish it in given timeframe. With the help of this project the theme park would increase its customer base and also create simple working environment for its frontline staff. Project Implementation Plan In the project implementation for the development of a software system for a major theme park company which will help in contributing towards the management of the system which will benefit the customers and enhance their satisfaction level through quicker services and less wastage of time. The implementation of the project is divided in to two part pre- implementation plan and post implementation plan. These are discussed in the below sections: - Pre implementation plan: - In the pre implementation plan, there will be consideration of the resources, allocation of the budget and the benefits which stakeholders will get after the implementation of the software system. Resources: - The resources which are required for the implementation of the software system are the architecture of computers in the offices according to the compatibility of the operating system of the software systems, the CPU requirements of the system should meet the standards of the software system and storage system for the data which will help in storing the data for future use (Ferrell, Fraedrich and Cengage, 2014). These resources will be available after the approval of the management system. The expanded details are provided in the details below: - Architecture: - In the architecture requirement of the software system, there are certain factors which are needed to be counted which include the policy for bespoke development and for customization of the system. The arrangements for the governance of central ICT according to the guidance of the Australian government. Continuity in the business: - during the process of implementation of the new software system there is a requirement that there should be continuity in the business of the theme park by implementing a management system for it. E- Security: - During the process of implementation, there should be requirement of e security system that no one outside the premises of the management of the theme park will be able to hack the system. There should be requirement for the security of the infrastructure framework and there should be a review process at the gateway. Guidance by the national e authentication and IMAGE Framework should be used with the mandatory implementation of the guidance for the protective email marking standards. From the side of government there should be assured framework of third party services. Capability of ICT: - From the workforce plan perspectives, reduction in the number of contractor by ICT should be done and benchmarking of the financial department would contribute in it. There should be adoption of A 2 pass review system policy. The performance indicator catalogue at the entry level program with the assessment of capability of the organization, and investment. Budget Allocation: - The allocation of the estimated budget for the implementation of the software system will be done on the basis of the resources required for it. Resources which are required for the system is discussed above. This will ensure that there is proper planning for every section of the work which is to be done. Allocation of budget to every activity will help in contributing in proper management of the budget. Stakeholders: - The stakeholders which will contribute in the process will be the management of the theme park, the employees working in the parks, people managing the property of the theme park and the customers which will contribute in making the experience better by telling their experiences with the implemented system (Wandel and Beavers, 2011). Now after the pre requisites of the implementation plan, there is a requirement of post implantation plan. Post implementation plan: - In the post implementation plan, there are certain features which will be included in this part of the work. The features are discussed below: - Monitoring and Controlling: - The monitoring and controlling of the implementation plan will include the responsibilities of the managers who are working in the theme park. There will be certain assigned jobs which will be given to the stakeholders and there will a steering committee which will approve the work which is done by the software implementers. For this there should be certain check list for the completion of the work. Baseline for the activities of the project will be done so that there should be pressure on the vendors that they should deliver the work within the time frame. Plan for the Risk Management: - There are certain potential risks which can be contribute in the implementation plan. These risks can be related to the management of the process or can be the resources or can be from the stakeholders side or from the outside of the organization (Wong, 2010). Key resources: - The key resources which can be the part of the risk management process: - E- security: - there should be implementation of the e- security of the system in the company so no competitor or other vendor could able to copy the software of the system. This would ensure that the work is going on in the safer way. Backup and restore: - In the back up and restore of the existing data of theme park requires a third party which can be a potential risk. So that management of the risk requires the type of company which has a clean system and there should be protocols and counter checking system so that the data which has been backed up and restored. Schedule of the project: - The schedule of the project will include the work breakdown structure and the life cycle which is given in the figure below: - References Anderson, D. J. (2004). Agile management for software engineering: Applying the theory ofconstraints for business results. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Buresh, D. (2008). Customer satisfaction and agile methods: Assessing customer satisfaction and agile project management methods. Germany: VDM Publishing House Ltd. Cao, D. B. (2006). An empirical investigation of critical success factors in agile softwaredevelopment projects. ProQuest Information and Learning Company Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovators dilemma: The revolutionary book that willchange the way you do business. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Cameron, B.G., T. Seher, E.F. Crawley (2010). "Goals for space exploration based onstakeholder network value considerations." in:Acta Astronautica Fletcher, A. (2013). "Mapping stakeholder perceptions for a third sector organization."in:Journal of Intellectual Capital4(4): 505 527. Fisher, C., and Lovell, A. (2008) Business Ethics and Values: Individual, Corporate andInternational Perspectives (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2008) Ferrell, O., Fraedrich, J., Cengage (2014) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making Cases,Gustafson, A. (2000). Making Sense of Postmodern Business Ethics.Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(3), p.645. Gotterbarn, and Rogerson, Simon, (1997). Real Estate Code ofEthics, Communications of the ACM, pp. 110-116. Tavani, H.T. (2007) Philosophical Theories of Privacy: Implications for an Adequate OnlinePrivacy Policy,Metaphilosophy, 38(1): 122. Verbeek, P., (2005)What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency andDesign, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. Wandel, T. and Beavers, A. (2011) Playing Around with Identity, inFacebookandPhilosophy, D.E. Wittkower (ed.), Chicago: Open Court, pp. 8996. Wong, P.H. (2010) The Good Life in Intercultural Information Ethics: A New Agenda, International Review of Information Ethics13: 2632.

Scope Statement Essay Sample free essay sample

Make sure you province what the concern benefits are traveling to be. While the charter needs to province what the new undertaking is traveling to supply and do some general statements of what betterments might happen. You truly necessitate to province benefits in footings of the stakeholders and the organisation. In existent life your undertakings are traveling to be viing with other undertakings for blessing and resources so you need to make your best to supply good clear benefits. You want direction to read the charter and understand why it is of import to the organisation to make the undertaking. You don’t desire them to read the charter and state. â€Å"So what? † â€Å"I don’t see the benefit. † â€Å"I see what you are seeking to carry through but I don’t see how that benefits the organisation. † â€Å"Why is your undertaking more good than constructing a new warehouse. or upgrading our fabrication line. We will write a custom essay sample on Scope Statement Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page or purchasing 100 new constabulary autos ( I used to work for the Illinois State Police ) ? † Preliminary Scope – This is your first chance to get down specifying the boundaries of your undertaking. The range statement is critical because it states what you are ( are non ) traveling to carry through by making the undertaking. At this point you are early in the undertaking but. it is still of import to get down developing the range statement every bit wholly as possible with the information you have at the clip. At this point the preliminary range will assist you develop your Project Charter. The preliminary range will supply input to the Project Objectives and Success Criteria parts of the charter. As you get more information subsequently. the range will most likely alteration. which is all right early on in the undertaking. You will. subsequently on. arrest alterations to the range. Once that occurs. it does non needfully intend alterations will non happen. but if they are traveling to happen they are traveling to hold to travel through a alteration direction procedur e. Your range is like the boundary around a athleticss playing field. Anything inside the boundary is in drama ( portion of the undertaking ) . Anything outside the boundary is out of drama ( non in the undertaking ) . So merely are boundaries on a playing field are easy to see and obvious. you need to develop your range so what is portion of the undertaking is easy to see. You can carry through this by being detailed and specific. Project Management Plan – The Project Management program will germinate as you go through the planning procedure. When you create your first version you are making the foundation for your complete program. As you go through the assorted cognition countries. you will update the information in the program and really mention to certification you will make subsequently such as the range statement. hazard direction program. work breakdown construction. etc. This papers besides gives you a opportunity to put out the land regulations for some of the administrative procedures that will happen in the undertaking ( see managerial and proficient procedures subdivision ) . A cardinal constituent of the Management and Technical Processes is the incorporation of the Deliverable Acceptance Form. This signifier is used to document whether or non each deliverable produced has been accepted or non and why or why non it was accepted. Having this cardinal piece of certification is indispensable for the squad so they know whether or non they have completed a deliverable or if they need to go on to work on it to do it acceptable. Scope Management Plan – This program discusses scope creative activity. confirmation and care. Once really cardinal construct is the range is non created by the undertaking squad entirely. It must be a concerted attempt between the undertaking squad and stakeholders of the undertaking. One cardinal component related to project failure is the deficiency of affecting stakeholders in the creative activity of the range. After all. they will be the 1s utilizing the terminal merchandise so it is critical that they are to a great extent involved in finding what the undertaking is traveling to make. While this may sound obvious. it is a common error made by undertaking squads. Scope Statement – Your range statement is one of the most critical paperss you will make. It reflects the apprehension between the undertaking squad and user as to exactly what will be produced by the undertaking. And. including what will non be produced is besides good particularly. if there has been some issues refering what will and will non be included. The more inclusive you can be here. the fewer struggles you will hold subsequently. Undertaking Justification – focal point on why are we making this undertaking and how is it traveling to profit the organisation. You need to do your instance as to why the undertaking is of import and needed. Undertaking Characteristics and Requirements – here you depicting what the merchandise will be that you will present as a consequence of the undertaking. This is what you are constructing. doing. planing – Focus on the Project’s Products are what you are really traveling to bring forth or construct or stop up with to work out the project’s concern demand. The merchandises are portion of the solution itself. You are pass oning — here’s what we are traveling to make as a consequence of this undertaking. Undertaking Deliverables – The Project’s deliverables are things you are traveling to necessitate to bring forth or make in order to successfully construct the project’s merchandise. Some of the deliverables are project direction related — range statement. west by south. alter direction program. costs estimations. etc. You need these to successfully pull off the undertaking. Other deliverables will be more straight related to bring forthing the merchandise and could be information you need or things really produced. For illustration if you are constructing a website one of the deliverables might be a client study bespeaking the services they would wish to hold via the web site. Another deliverable might be a place page design or website pilotage construction. You are depicting – here’s the material we are traveling to necessitate or bring forth while constructing our merchandise. Project Success Factors – Here you need to depict how you will mensurate undertaking success – you need to be specific – footings such as successful. faster. improved – are non specific plenty. You need to be able to mensurate the consequence. You need to come up with every bit many steps as you can. Besides if you are replacing an bing solution it is a good thought to benchmark the old solution – get steps as to how the old manner performs. Then as portion of your steps for the new solution you can compare to see if the new manner is really an betterment over the old manner. 1. Aims are clear and mensurable.2. Supply the conditions that affect the nonsubjective 3. Supply the steps of success – how do we know we have successfully met the aim. Success steps should associate to our stakeholders – i. vitamin E clients. proprietors. employees. †¦ Properly saying the aims in mensurable footings is critical to a project’s success. These will supply you with the marks your squad demands to make. And. these must be agreed upon by both the squad and stakeholders. Work Breakdown Structure – The work dislocation construction is all the undertakings you will necessitate to carry through to finish the undertaking. Some undertakings will be reasonably high degree while others will necessitate to be decomposed into more and more simple degree undertakings. This is non an easy occupation. One of the grounds is you have to include all undertakings needed to acquire the occupation done. We are non used to making this and if your undertaking involves people stating you how they do procedures. they find it hard to specify what they do in item. Try this yourself. Write down and sequence all the undertakings needed to travel from where you are now to your auto or front door. Now. follow your work dislocation construction for acquiring to your auto or front door. Did you do it? Bet you walked into a wall or forgot to open a door or went the incorrect manner. I doubt you made it the first clip. Now. if this work dislocation construction was your unde rtaking. you would revise it based on the information you gathered when you tried to make it. Your first version of your WBS will most likely non be right. You need to verify it by feigning to make it. reexamining it with stakeholders. reexamining it with others – whatever you need to make to acquire it right. Your work dislocation construction will finally be entered into Microsoft Project and will function as the footing for your agenda. Schedule/Activity Sequencing As you develop your resource and continuance estimations ( see below ) . this is besides a good clip to develop your replacement and predecessor relationships. Basically you have to calculate out. for each activity. what activity has to be done before this activity can get down and what activity depends on this activity before it can get down. These relationships will find the order in which the activities will look and. will find the critical way ( s ) in your undertaking. Is holding slack or eventuality clip in a undertaking an all right thing to make? Personally I feel constructing in slack or excess clip in a undertaking is a good pattern. This would be excess clip set aside for unexpected fortunes. I really like the term eventuality clip. Unexpected things will go on. Peoples will acquire ill. exigencies will happen. a cardinal member of the squad will discontinue. an activity or two will take longer than you expected. Having eventuality clip in your undertaking will assist absorb these things. Notice that I did non state anything about making excess work non included in the range. I do non experience this is what this type of clip should be used for. Additional work that expands the range should travel through the alteration procedure and if approved the range. clip. cost and the agenda should be adjusted consequently. It is alluring to add a small piece of work here and at that place but – avoid making it. How much eventuality clip should you add and where should it be in the agenda? I would add every bit much as 20 % if you can acquire off with it. I would non add it to each undertaking ( There is a theory that people will take whatever clip is assigned to execute an activity – so if you add excess clip to each activity it will be used up merely acquiring the activity done. ) . I prefer a pool of eventuality clip at the terminal of major mileposts and possibly a spot more at the terminal of the undertaking. Note: For the Activity Resource Requirements and Activity Duration Requirements I suggest you combine the Activity Resource Requirements Information templet with the Activity List and Attributes templets to make one deliverable for these two points. Activity Resource Requirements – Here you are seeking to find what resources you will necessitate to finish this undertaking. This includes people on your squad every bit good as other human and non-human resources. For illustration. to finish a peculiar activity. you may necessitate person from your squad. a specializer. and a peculiar piece of equipment. This measure is of import because it determines what skills. types of workers. and other resources you will necessitate. Sometime you can acquire the undertaking done utilizing your full-time assigned staff. But. frequently you will necessitate specializers or a piece of equipment or package. By finding these resources now. you can assist guarantee the specializer is on board when you need them or the equipment or package is available when you need it. Activity Duration Requirements – For this deliverable you are finding how long it will take to carry through the activity. The book provides a figure of ways to make this. You want to be every bit accurate as possible as this will find one of your ternary restraints – clip. Cardinal things to me are don’t over commit your staff. Realistically no 1 works an 8 hr twenty-four hours. So develop your agenda based on something less. This will depend on your organization’s criterions. your staffing committednesss. and staff endowment among other things. I know in organisations in which I’ve worked. many staff members on a undertaking had other duties for which they were responsible. If they typically spend 20 hours a hebdomad making this work and. they are non traveling to be relieved of this duty. so take into history that they will non be available for those 20 hours per hebdomad. One job I have seen in many agendas trades with deliverable blessings. I frequently see in agendas that a day of the month will be assigned for a deliverable to be due and delivered to a stakeholder for blessing and that’s it. You besides need to include clip for the stakeholder to reexamine it — put this in the agenda – if they have 5 yearss to reexamine and acquire back to you so put that in the agenda and delegate it to the stakeholder. Besides. supply clip in the agenda to make over the deliverable. Don’t assume that merely because you produced the deliverable it’s traveling to be right – make certain you put clip in to revise it. This job can be reduced by affecting the stakeholder in the development of the deliverable. Stakeholder inclusion in the agenda. I suggest if you need something from any of your stakeholders – information. reappraisal. blessings. etc. Then put them and the undertaking in the agenda. This lets them cognize what outlooks you have from them and when they are traveling to happen. This will assist them to be after their clip and agendas so they can be involved when you need them. Microsoft Project Entry of Schedule – Using the work dislocation construction and activity continuance estimations you have developed. enter this information into Microsoft Project. Post the resulting. mpp file in your group’s Final Deliverables forum and title it â€Å"Microsoft Project Entry 1. † Cost Estimates – Cost is the 3rd constituent of the ternary restraint and as such it is critical that cost estimations be every bit accurate as possible given the information at the clip. At this point ideally you know what the coveted range is and you know the coveted completion day of the month. Your occupation now is to calculate what the undertaking is traveling to be to finish all the work defined within the range and acquire the work done on clip. based on the coveted bringing day of the month. As the text explains. there are a figure of ways to gauge costs. I agree with the writer when she indicates more than one attack is good to utilize. If you have done the range and clip estimations foremost. your first cost estimation may be the first clip your stakeholders find out what the undertaking is truly traveling to be. More frequently than non the cost estimation is more than the stakeholders had budgeted. So basically you most probably will come in a dialogue stage where you will cover with your ternary restraints for range. clip and cost and hopefully come to an understanding of an appropriate range that can be completed on clip and for an sum of money the stakeholders can afford. Quality Management Plan – One remark I typically give groups refering this deliverable is to be specific in your quality measurings. Part of this deliverable is to find what things will bespeak your undertaking is making the expected degree of quality. What you want to remain off from are words such as good. fast. improved. high degree †¦ You can’t step when you use words such as these. Your definition of fast may be different than your stakeholders. So. you need to seek to place something you can mensurate – alternatively of fast say something like less than 3 seconds. Alternatively of stating the house will hold multiple sleeping rooms you say the house will hold four sleeping rooms. You can mensurate these. Truly. each deliverable should hold a defined and stated nonsubjective ( s ) . Basically. the deliverable aims are portion of your quality step does the deliverable do what it is supposed to make or non. Since you are looking for user/stakeholder signoff. you need to hold clear standards as to what the stakeholder is anticipating from the deliverable. By stipulating these aims up front. your squad knows what to take for and what to bring forth. And. the stakeholder should be able to see that the deliverable provides what it is supposed to supply. Will stakeholders change their heads as to the aims after they have seen the deliverable? Certain. If this happens. clip to hit the Change Management procedure ( presented subsequently in the semester ) . Personally. I like to demo stakeholders deliverables incrementally. this manner they have a opportunity to alter their head before I get it all finished so I am altering a smaller piece than if I wait until I’m all done. Besides reme mber maintaining stakeholders extremely engaged in the undertaking is one of the best ways to assist the undertaking successful. If they are extremely involved in specifying and making the deliverable. they are more likely to signoff on it the first or at least 2nd clip. Responsibility Assignment Matrix – It is of import that people know who is responsible for what during the class of a undertaking. There will be a figure of stakeholders involved with your undertaking and each will play an of import function. The duty assignment matrix is a good manner to visually demo what these functions are traveling to be. Stakeholders can acquire a good image of what they are traveling to be responsible for and it informs the undertaking squad as to what to anticipate from each stakeholder. For illustration if stakeholder Angstrom is traveling to be responsible for specifying the demands of the undertaking. utilizing a tool like this informs both the individual and the squad of this function. Now. based on my past experience. you may acquire person assigned to a function that they are non qualified for. For illustration. if stakeholder A is responsible for specifying the demands and you know that stakeholder A has small experience in the country they are specifying. you need to oppugn the assignment. As a undertaking director it is your duty to do certain the undertaking is a success. Consequently. if you see person has been put in a function they are non qualified for you need to seek to acquire person else. You will non ever win but. you need to seek. If you don’t win. so this would go one of your hazards ( see subsequently ) . Resource Histogram – the resource histogram provides a image of when resources are traveling to be needed throughout the undertaking and what resources will be used together. It provides the undertaking director. staff and stakeholders kind of a drumhead position of how resources will be loaded on the undertaking. Staffing Management Plan – As you complete your undertaking you will most likely need people with different accomplishments at different times. For illustration if you are constructing a house. you will necessitate surveyors foremost. excavators 2nd. concrete workers 3rd. so possibly a mix of carpenters. pipe fitters. linemans. and so on. You will non necessitate all these accomplishments at one time or for the continuance of the undertaking but. you need these accomplishments at specific times during the undertaking. As such. it is of import to cognize what skills you are traveling to necessitate and when. Using this information. you can schedule the accomplishments you need when you need them. Additionally. this allows the people you need to cognize when they are traveling to be needed on your undertaking and can put their agenda consequently or. state you they are non available which allows you clip to acquire person else. If you didn’t make this type of deliverable you may necessitate a certain accomplishment ( for illustration a carpenter ) and person with that accomplishment may non be available. The consequence being the undertaking is delayed. Communication Management Plan – Good communications is a key to project success. Knowing this. it is of import to stipulate what information is traveling to be provided to stakeholders. when it will be provided. and how it will be provided. This sets the outlooks for the stakeholders so they know when to anticipate communications refering the undertaking and. outlooks of the undertaking squad so they know when to bring forth information. One error I have seen ( and done ( ) is to conceal bad intelligence in the certification that is sent to stakeholders ( trusting they would non see it ) instead than face the job caput on with the stakeholders. If you have a job or issue that needs to be dealt with – trade with it. Travel in front and document it but besides raise the issue with the stakeholders and work to decide it. Merely because you province that in the certification that the undertaking is late or over budget does non take away your duty to decide it. This tends to be one of the more uncomfortable things for undertaking directors to make but. it is something that you need to larn to make. The job will non as if by magic travel away – it will most likely acquire worse if non resolved. Microsoft Project Entry of Resources and Costs – Using the activity resource and cost estimations you have developed. enter this information into Microsoft Project. Post the resulting. mpp file in your group’s Final Deliverables forum and title it â€Å"Microsoft Project Entry 2. † Risk Management Plan – A simplistic position of hazard direction is taking a expression at your undertaking ( this is ongoing throughout the life of your undertaking ) and inquiring. â€Å"What can travel incorrect and. if it does. what are we traveling to make about it. † I know there are other factors such a chances of the hazard happening but many undertakings would travel a long manner merely by inquiring this simple inquiry. Thingss will go on that will endanger the success of your undertaking. Unfortunately many undertaking directors do non turn to the hazards in front of clip and are surprised when something happens. By turn toing hazards in the planning phases. it gives you a opportunity to seek to find if something does travel incorrect what is my program to acquire through it. It is guaranteed that things will travel incorrect no affair how good you plan. Merely by be aftering good you better your opportunities but. random Acts of the Apostless of badness happ en. Hazard Register – It is of import that you document your hazards and maintain path of them on an on-going footing. Some hazards will travel off while new 1s will come up. For those hazards you have identified. you need to execute some analysis and informations assemblage to to the full document the hazard. The hazard registry is your tool for making this. Procurement Management Plan – Most undertakings will necessitate the purchase of something. It could run from a little sum of supplies to engaging person to finish the full undertaking for you. Most organisations have guidelines/policies for doing purchases and you will necessitate to follow with those policies. The procurement direction program will be used by the undertaking squad as a usher for doing purchases or come ining into contracts. Some purchases are easy – you need some supplies so you go to your authorised seller and acquire them without any command procedures. Other purchases require much more attempt. One major error I have seen frequently when doing these larger acquisitions is a failure to stipulate precisely what is needed. Be it the acquisition of a piece of building equipment to engaging a adviser to make an information systems undertaking. stipulating precisely what is needed is a cardinal constituent to really acquiring what you want. Simply. if yo u don’t cognize what it is you need. how do you cognize when you have it? For illustration. if you wanted to purchase a new cell phone you would most likely think about what you would desire it to make before you went to the cell phone trader. You might state to yourself. â€Å"What do I desire to make with my cell phone? † Then you may do a list – I want to do calls. I want to take image. I want to be able to direct the images to my friends. I want to text message. I want to entree the Internet. and so on. Then armed with this list ( your requirements/what you need in a cell phone ) you would travel to the cell phone shop and state to the seller. â€Å"I want a cell phone that does these things. † A undertaking requires the same particularization of demands ( range ) before doing acquisitions. Often times non holding a good set of demands will intend something is left out – something needed isn’t available. However. it can work the other manner besides. An electrical contractor here in Springfield spent $ 50. 000 on package to run his concern. He did no demands so there was no range for what the package should include. The bundle contained 5 faculties ( each could hold been purchased for $ 10. 000 ) . After installing and working with the package for a few months he realized he merely needed 2 of the 5 faculties. Consequently he spent $ 30. 000 he could hold used for something else. Another country of trouble. which specifically relates to hiring of contractors. is contract direction. Even though you have hired person to make your undertaking or portion of your undertaking. you need to do certain they do it right. A key to this is a good and specific range. Remember. the range defines precisely what is to be done. You can non merely allow your contractor go out and make the occupation. you need to supervise the work. Contract Statement of Work ( SOW ) – The Statement of Work is really of import papers as your undertaking moves out of the planning phases and into existent execution. The SOW which besides gets incorporated into an RFP is basically a item designation of what the undertaking should bring forth for the client. The more elaborate and specific you can be the better because you are traveling to be mentioning back to this to see if you are really bring forthing or if the contractor is really bring forthing what is expected. Besides note that what is contained in the SOW must associate straight back to the Scope statement – in other words. everything in the SOW must suit within the range and. at that place needs to be something in the SOW for every portion of the range. Actually. the SOW can be considered an internal contract and. when it is a portion of an RFP is becomes portion of the contract. And. as portion of the contract. this is what the contractor ( in-house or outsourced ) is responsible for presenting. So. it is really of import that this papers is really clear. specific and elaborate. Some RFP’s I have been portion of developing ended up to be 100s of page long with the majority being the specification of the work we wanted done ( SOW ) . Be careful non to presume that things will be done or included in the undertaking – this is the clip to spell it out – if it’s a characteristic that is needed – put it in composing. Note – the Scope of Work subdivision of the Contract Statement of Work on page 217 is non right. The stairss in the illustration relate more to fixing for directing out the contract petition. What should look in this subdivision is your project’s range ( see treatment above ) . Change Management Plan – Changes will happen as your undertaking progresses. The of import thing is to command alterations. This is done with a alteration control system. Ideally. once we finalized the range there would be no alterations. Unfortunately. there will be. Once stakeholders start seeing deliverables ( floor program. mockups. merchandise samples. etc. ) they will sometimes alter their head as to what they want. This changing of the range has been a long clip job for undertakings. Undertaking directors and squad members want to delight the stakeholder and accordingly hold to alterations without analysing the impact the alteration is traveling to hold on the ternary restraint ( range. clip. and cost ) . Change can frequently do the ensuing undertaking better but. about all alterations will hold an impact on the undertaking. Basically. you can’t add another characteristic for free – there is traveling to be either or both a dollar cost involved every bit good as a clip cost. What we want to make here is to show the impact of the alteration ( cost and/or clip ) to the stakeholder and see if they are willing to incur the extra cost and/or clip. If they are willing. we document the understanding as an recognized alteration and s o remake the old certification ( range. budget. agenda. etc. ) and travel on. If non agreed upon. we do non make the alteration or detain it until the undertaking is finished and possibly implement it as a new undertaking.

Free Essays on German U-Boats

Each country in the war had an area which they excelled, and for the Germans that was the powerful U-boats with cannons, big guns and torpedos, sailing the Atlantic. There were many operations for U-boats during WWII. First we’ll discuss the Larconia incident. Larconia Incident A German U-boat (U-156) torpedoed a large target in the South Atlantic Ocean. A British liner (Larconia), carrying a 136-man crew, military material and personnel (268 men), about 80 civilians, and around 1800 Italian prisoners of war along with armed guards of 160 Polish soldiers sank at 2323 hours military time. Amazed to hear Italian voices, the commander, Kptlt. Werner Harenstien at once began a rescue mission for the people struggling in the sea and those in lifeboats. Offering to cease hostilities, he radioed an uncoded message to every vessel within hearing distance for help. In the days that followed Harenstien’s crew save about 400 survivors, half of which were brought on ship and the other half in lifeboats. Next U-506 arrived and began to help rescue the survivors and a little while later U-507 and an Italian submarine came to help. As the boats headed for shore, towing the lifeboats behind them, an American B-24 Liberator bomber operating from the Ascension Island, its pilot spotted the boats. The pilot radioed base asking for instructions. Following orders he attacked, forcing the rescue boats to cut the lines leading to the lifeboats, leaving hundreds of survivors in the water again. Because a French warship from Dakar appeared and began fishing people out of the water again, the US attack didn’t cause as many dead as it could have. Approximately 1500 people survived. Many times U-boats had helped their survivors with supplies, water and directions of which way to go. After this incident, an order was issued (called the Larconia order) that no U-boats were ever to take part in rescue operations again. They were to leave their sur... Free Essays on German U-Boats Free Essays on German U-Boats Each country in the war had an area which they excelled, and for the Germans that was the powerful U-boats with cannons, big guns and torpedos, sailing the Atlantic. There were many operations for U-boats during WWII. First we’ll discuss the Larconia incident. Larconia Incident A German U-boat (U-156) torpedoed a large target in the South Atlantic Ocean. A British liner (Larconia), carrying a 136-man crew, military material and personnel (268 men), about 80 civilians, and around 1800 Italian prisoners of war along with armed guards of 160 Polish soldiers sank at 2323 hours military time. Amazed to hear Italian voices, the commander, Kptlt. Werner Harenstien at once began a rescue mission for the people struggling in the sea and those in lifeboats. Offering to cease hostilities, he radioed an uncoded message to every vessel within hearing distance for help. In the days that followed Harenstien’s crew save about 400 survivors, half of which were brought on ship and the other half in lifeboats. Next U-506 arrived and began to help rescue the survivors and a little while later U-507 and an Italian submarine came to help. As the boats headed for shore, towing the lifeboats behind them, an American B-24 Liberator bomber operating from the Ascension Island, its pilot spotted the boats. The pilot radioed base asking for instructions. Following orders he attacked, forcing the rescue boats to cut the lines leading to the lifeboats, leaving hundreds of survivors in the water again. Because a French warship from Dakar appeared and began fishing people out of the water again, the US attack didn’t cause as many dead as it could have. Approximately 1500 people survived. Many times U-boats had helped their survivors with supplies, water and directions of which way to go. After this incident, an order was issued (called the Larconia order) that no U-boats were ever to take part in rescue operations again. They were to leave their sur...

Biography of Cary Grant, Famous Leading Man

Biography of Cary Grant, Famous Leading Man Cary Grant (born Archibald Alexander Leach; January 18, 1904–November 29, 1986) was one of Americans most successful actors of the 20th century. He made his way out of an unhappy home life in Bristol, England, by joining a troupe of British comedians, then crossing the Atlantic to try his hand at vaudeville before becoming a suave screen presence and one of Hollywood’s favorite leading men. Fast Facts: Cary Grant Known For: One of filmdoms favorite leading menAlso Known As: Archibald Alexander LeachBorn: January 18, 1904 in Bristol, EnglandParents: Elias James Leach, Elsie Maria KingdonDied: November 29, 1986 in Davenport, IowaFilms: Topper, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest, CharadeSpouse(s): Virginia Cherrill, Barbara Woolworth Hutton, Betsy Drake, Dyan Cannon, Barbara HarrisChildren: Jennifer GrantNotable Quote: So would I, when told by an interviewer that Everybody would like to be  Cary Grant. Early Life Grant was the son of Elsie Maria Kingdon and Elias James Leach, a suit presser in a clothing manufacturing plant. The working-class family of Episcopalians lived in a stone row house in Bristol, England, kept warm by coal-burning fireplaces. When Grant was young, his parents often argued with one another. A bright boy, Grant attended the Bishop Road Boys’ School, ran errands for his mother, and enjoyed movies with his father. When Grant was 9, however, his life tragically changed when his mother disappeared. Told that she was resting at a seaside resort, Grant wouldn’t see her for more than 20 years. Now raised by his father and his father’s distant parents, Grant took his mind off his unsettled home life by playing handball at school and joining the Boy Scouts. In school, he loitered in the science lab, fascinated by electricity. The science professor’s assistant took the 13-year-old Grant to the Bristol Hippodrome to show him the lighting system he had installed. Grant became infatuated- not with the lighting, but with the theater. English Theater In 1918, the 14-year-old Grant took a job at the Empire Theater assisting the men working the arc lamps. He frequently skipped school to attend matinees. Hearing that the Bob Pender Troupe of comedians was hiring, Grant wrote Pender an introductory letter, forging his father’s signature. Unbeknownst to his father, Grant was hired and learned to walk on stilts, pantomime, and perform acrobatics, touring English cities with the troupe. Grants devotion was thwarted when his father found him and dragged him home. Grant got himself expelled from school by peeking at the girls in the restroom.  With his father’s blessing, Grant then rejoined the Pender troupe. In 1920, eight boys, Grant among them, were selected from the troupe to appear at New Yorks Hippodrome. The teen sailed for America to begin a new life. Broadway While working in New York in 1921, Grant received a letter from his father saying he had fathered a son named Eric Leslie Leach with another woman. Grant gave little thought to his half-brother, enjoying baseball, Broadway celebrities, and living beyond his means. When the Pender tour ended in 1922, Grant stayed in New York, selling ties on the street and performing on stilts at Coney Island while watching for another vaudeville opening. Soon he was back at the Hippodrome using his acrobatic, juggling, and mime skills. In 1927, Grant appeared in his first Broadway musical comedy, Golden Dawn, at the Hammerstein Theater. Because of his good looks and gentlemanly ways, Grant won the leading male role in a 1928 play, Rosalie. He was spotted by Fox Film Corp. talent scouts and asked to take a screen test, which he flunked: They said he was bowlegged and his neck was too thick. When the stock market crashed in 1929, half of the Broadway theaters closed. Grant took a pay cut but appeared in musical comedies. In the summer of 1931, Grant, hungry for work, appeared at the outdoor Muny Opera in St. Louis, Missouri. Movies In November 1931, the 27-year-old Grant drove cross-country to Hollywood. After a few introductions and dinners, he had another screen test and received a five-year contract with Paramount, but the studio rejected his name. Grant had played a character named Cary on Broadway; the plays author suggested that Grant take that name. He picked Grant from a studio list of last names. Grant’s first feature film, This Is the Night (1932), was followed by seven more films that year. He took parts rejected by seasoned actors. Although Grant was inexperienced, his looks and easy working style kept him in pictures, including the popular Mae West films She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I’m No Angel (1933). Marrying and Going Independent In 1933, Grant met actress Virginia Cherrill, 26, the star of several Charlie Chaplin films, at the William Randolph Hearst beach house and sailed for England that November, his first trip home. They married on February 2, 1934, in London’s Caxton Hall registry office. After seven months, Cherrill left Grant and claimed he was too controlling. They divorced in 1935. In 1936, rather than re-signing with Paramount, Grant hired an independent agent to represent him. Grant could now choose his roles and took taking artistic control of his career, which gave him unprecedented independence at the time. Between 1937 and 1940, Grant honed his screen personality as an elegant, irresistible leading man. He appeared in two moderately successful films, Columbias When Youre in Love (1937) and RKO’s The Toast of New York (1937). Then came box-office success in Topper (1937) and The Awful Truth (1937), which received six Academy Awards- Grant, the leading actor, was not the recipient of any of those awards. Grants Mother Resurfaces In October 1937, Grant received a letter from his mother, saying she wanted to see him. Grant, who thought she had died years before, booked passage to England after he finished filming Gunga Din (1939). At 33, Grant finally learned that his mother had suffered a nervous breakdown and his father put her into an asylum. She had become mentally unbalanced from guilt over losing an earlier son, John William Elias Leach, who had developed gangrene from a torn thumbnail before he turned 1. After watching him around the clock for several nights, Elsie took a nap and the child died. Grant got his mother released and purchased a Bristol home for her. He corresponded with her, visited often, and financially supported her until she died at age 95 in 1973. Marrying Again In 1940, Grant appeared in Penny Serenade (1941) and received an Oscar nomination. He didnt win, but he became a box-office star and, on June 26, 1942, an American citizen. On July 8, 1942, Grant married 30-year-old Barbara Woolworth Hutton, the granddaughter of the founder of Woolworths and one of the worlds wealthiest women. Later, Grant received his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor for None but the Lonely Heart (1944). After several separations and reconciliations, the marriage ended in divorce on July 11, 1945. Hutton had lifelong psychological problems; she was 6 when she found her mother’s body after her suicide. In 1947, Grant received the Kings Medal for Services in the Cause of Freedom for meritorious service during World War II, when he had donated his salaries from two movies to the British war effort. On December 25, 1949, Grant got married for the third time, to 26-year-old Betsy Drake- his co-star in Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). Brief Retirement Grant retired from acting in 1952, sensing that newer, grittier actors such as James Dean and Marlon Brando were the new draw rather than light-hearted comedic actors. Drake introduced Grant to LSD therapy, which was legal at that time. Grant claimed he found inner peace regarding his troubled upbringing. Director Alfred Hitchcock coaxed Grant out of retirement to star in To Catch a Thief (1955). Its acclaim followed two earlier Grant-Hitchcock successes: Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946). Grant starred in more films, including Houseboat (1958), where he fell in love with co-star Sophia Loren. Although Loren married producer Carlo Ponti, Grant’s marriage to Drake became strained; they separated in 1958 but didnt divorce until August 1962. Grant starred in another Hitchcock film, North by Northwest (1959). His suave performance made him the archetype for Ian Fleming’s fictional spy James Bond. Grant was offered the role by producer Albert Broccoli, but Grant thought he was too old and would commit to just one film of the potential series. The role ultimately went to 32-year-old Sean Connery in 1962. Grant’s successful movies continued with Charade (1963) and Father Goose (1964). Becoming a Father On July 22, 1965, the 61-year-old Grant married his fourth wife, 28-year-old actress Dyan Cannon. In 1966, Cannon gave birth to daughter Jennifer, Grants first child. Grant announced his retirement from acting that year. Cannon reluctantly joined Grant’s LSD therapy, but her scary experiences strained their relationship. They divorced on March 20, 1968, but Grant remained a doting father. On a trip to England, Grant met hotel public relations officer Barbara Harris, 46 years his junior, and married her on April 15, 1981. They remained married until his death five years later. Death In 1982, Grant began touring the international lecture circuit in a one-man show called A Conversation with Cary Grant, during which he talked about his films, showed clips, and answered audience questions. Grant was in Davenport, Iowa, when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while preparing for the show. He died that night, Nov. 29, 1986, at age 82. Legacy In 1970, Grant received a special Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his acting achievements. Coupled with his two previous best actor Oscar nominations, five Golden Globe best actor nominations, 1981 Kennedy Center honors, and nearly two dozen other major nominations and awards, Grants place in film history is secure, as is his image of grace and civility. In 2004, Premiere magazine named him the greatest movie star of all time. Sources â€Å"Cary Grant.† IMDb.Cary Grant Biography. Biography.com.Cary Grant: British-American Actor. Encyclopaedia Britannica.10 Things You Never Knew About Cary Grant, Hollywood’s Greatest Leading Man. Littlethings.com.

Health Care Reform Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Health Care Reform - Assignment Example A week after the new health care reform was implemented, US insurance companies have been ceasing to offer health insurance policies that cover only children because of the fear that parents will wait until a child is ill before purchasing health insurance, and may drop the insurance after the child recovers (Tanne, 2010, n.p.). The new health care reform act of 2010 does not only extend insurance coverage among children but to all Americans as well. Changes on the new coverage of health care reform act affect both the government and uninsured population. Making health care affordable to all Americans will increase medical spending up to $ 1,600 or an increased in 70% per uninsured individual and savings in public programs are achieved because of changes in traditional payment changes in Medicare and Medicaid (Cutler, Davis, & Stremikis, 2010, 2). In addition, the new health care reform establishes insurance exchanges that will group individuals and small firms into larger entities, minimize marketing costs, and stronger oversight of industry practices. On the patient side, improvement in information are made available as well as the incentives and medical provision. Meanwhile, health care reform consequences include the excised of tax on premiums to give affordable health care to all Americans (Cutler, Davis, & Stremikis, 2010, 7), increase incidences of fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid programs, and uneven distribution of health care costs to the patients with chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure, diabetes, and hypertension (Orszag & Emanuel, 2010, 602). Therefore, it is expected that medical spending will decrease over time because of improvement in health but expenses imposed on additional health care providers needed to provide care to all Americans passes the burden to premium member, open up opportunities for employers to abuse health insurances among workers, and limits monitoring check-ups of certain chronic conditions because of

How to feel Happiness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

How to feel Happiness - Essay Example Some say that they believe they could be happy if only they had more money, some say that they would be happier if they found love, still others say they would be happy in a different place or a different time. The end result is that each of these points of view is delaying happiness into the future until such a time as a given goal or milestone is able t be reached. Unfortunately, once this goal is reached, oftentimes the individual has a new goal or milestone – or has even forgotten about the old one- so that they are never able to achieve that happiness which they so desire. In this way, shaping one’s environment in order to create peace and contentment is a powerful way in which happiness can be achieved. Many world religions speak of this. Most notably the Bible counsels, â€Å"I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content† (The Holy Bible Philippians 4:11). Though many of the world’s major religions teach this, it seems to be a precept that has been lost on humanity. As such, it is perhaps this very reason that has meant that spiritual teachers have for so long attempted to change people’s minds with respect to their surroundings a nd particular situation in life; as compared to the way that people oftentimes see this. Therefore, thinking of happiness as a journey and not a destination is the most powerful tool in changing the environment we find ourselves in. Naturally it is human nature to be dissatisfied, discontent, and generally unhappy with the state of affairs. In truth, this discontent nature is one of the factures that drives us out of our comfort zone and encourages us to make changes in the world. Oftentimes these changes lead to good things; sometimes to bad. Regardless, a healthy dose of contentment in one’s given situation can greatly assist the individual in achieving a

The Colliding of Black Holes Essay Example for Free

The Colliding of Black Holes Essay Physics is just a world of simplicity explained with logic and math. The fact that we are brave enough to be examining the vast universe with its components nowhere close to the size of humans; fills the streak of intimidation. The universe acts as a system of equilibrium; just like the law of conservation of energy it also follows the law of conservation of mass/matter. The biggest contributors, still veiled with mysteries are Dark Matter, Black Holes, WIMPs, and Higgs Bosons etc. Black holes are widely studied and its powers are simulated over hundreds of labs around the world. However, the one that caught my attention was related to â€Å"Colliding of Black Holes†. On a fundamental level, it is a well-known fact in the world of astrophysics that black holes are bodies with immense energy with the ability to destruct anything in its way, some scientists even refer to it as the, ‘Ultimate garbage disposal of the universe’. Jumping up to the next few levels where two of such black holes come in contact. According to studies, the surrounding space-time surge and undulate causing a severe distortion in the space-time fabric. This warp is so complicated that even the incredibly high levels of calculations in Math fail to clearly explain the phenomenon. Even though physicists have simulated many different probabilities; nailing down the perfect explanation has not been possible. However, many theories have floated up. The two black holes may join and become a supermassive black hole. The region of Space-time may undulate so much that a certain region around the two bodies would possibly even allow backwards time travel. Most of these theories have Einstein’s general relativity as the backbone. Theories and hypothesis lead to the evolution in science. When you consider the above phenomena, as a high school student I would probably relate it to something so much simpler; like may be the Newton’s laws. Even though I would not be able to nail the actual consequence I would get an idea of the scale of the consequence. Newton’s third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction; if two black holes with destructive gravitational forces move against each other it is obvious that they interact on each other with the same force; hence, causing an immeasurable damage – which is simple enough for us to understand and well enough explains the basic consequence. †¦but if you want a simpler explanation; you’d probably want to simply watch it from a distant, it would be quite a rive for any material to be swirling in its vicinity.

Chaucers Canterbury Tales - The Modern and Mediaeval Merchants Tale :: The Merchants Tale

The Modern and Mediaeval Merchant's Tale  Ã‚   "The Merchant's Prologue and Tale" is mainly concerned with the infidelity of May while she is married to Januarie. Infidelity is undoubtedly a popular topic for discussion in modern times and is often the subject of magazine or television stories. Despite the concern with marriage and the status of men and women within such a relationship keeping the story applicable to the audience even more than 600 years later, there are many elements of the Prologue and Tale which root them in a mediaeval context. The reasons to marry and the opinions cited show the attitudes of the mediaeval period as do the references to mythological figures such as "Ymeneus, that god of wedding is". Symbolising how the mediaeval and modern aspects of the Tale can be easily combined is the story of Pluto and Proserpina. Although Pluto captures his wife, she is able to spend much of the year away from Hades. This is symbolic of the greater liberty that many women can enjoy in the modern world. Opposing this modern link is the relationship between Januarie and May which is shown to have followed mediaeval tradition to a greater extent concerning the actual marriage and the mercantile nature in which it is brought about. Rather than the freedom for Proserpina agreed between herself and Pluto, Januarie desires a wife of "warm wex" that he can control, ultimately causing May to betray him. Januarie's reasons for marrying are seen as improper both in the mediaeval and modern contexts. He wishes to be married simply because he is old and society seems to say that he should. There is no consideration of love, only of lust as he declares, "I wol noon oold wyf han in no manere". A mediaeval audience would have been aware that an emphasis on carnal pleasure was displeasing to God, while this would be less of an issue to a modern audience. As marriage was considered by the mediaeval audience to be an embodiment of Christ's devotion to the Church, the theme of infidelity would be apparent to the modern audience, but without the ironic details obvious to the earlier audience. In addition to this, the simple fact that Januarie's friends are prepared to find "to whom [he] may be wedded hastily", rather than let Januarie look for himself roots the Tale in a mediaeval context as such an idea is almost inconceivable in the year 2000.

Imperialsim †proper and legitimate course Essay

Have you ever wanted something because you felt you deserved it? Throughout history people have wanted to expand and take what they wanted. It is human nature to want things and set goals to acquire those wants. Imperialism was a proper and legitimate course of action for the U.S. Imperialism is the proper thing for America to practice. Reverend Josiah Strong wrote Our Country stating, â€Å"The highest civilization will spread itself over the earth. â€Å"This means that Americas are better than all the people who we took the land of. Alfred T. Mahan wrote The Interest of America in Sea Power which says, â€Å"The growing production of the country demands it.† This means that America needs to expand to allow more people to purchase our products. President McKinley said, â€Å"we could not leave them to themselves they were unfit for self government.† This means that our way of government is so much better than theirs in our eyes that we must take over them to help them prosper. Albert Beveridge, a Republican senator from Indiana said, â€Å"Almighty God He has marked us as His chosen people.† This means that it’s our god given right to pursue more land. Henry Cabot Lodge stated â€Å"Taking Philippines does not violate the princ iples of the Declaration of Independence, but will spread them among a people who have never known liberty.† This means he want us to force freedom on the Philippines and eventually more people. Imperialism is legitimate and proper however some people disagree with this statement. Senator George F. Hoar says â€Å"under the Declaration of Independence you cannot govern a foreign territory, a foreign people, another people than your own†. This being said means that many things America has done goes against the declaration which is unjustifiable. Anti-Imperialist League said, we hold that the policy know as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been out glory to be free.† This is basically saying that imperialism is evil and goes against liberty. In conclusion, Imperialism was a proper and legitimate course of action for  the U.S. Imperialism is a very controversial topic that can prove to be just or not in many ways. In the end if America did expand we would of wasted or true potential to be what we are now. If one this imperialism isn’t just how ever then why will there option matter because without land there would be overpopulation and lack of commonly used resources.

Heinz Marketing Plan

Heinz Marketing Plan Heinz brand is trusted worldwide, has earned a reputation for quality, nutrition, innovation and value. Heinz has shown significant in marketing and productivity for 2013 to drive a continued excellent performance. The main strategy behind Heinz product strategy has been to streamline their product offering. In order to offer better quality products, Heinz decided to categorise their items. All there products now fall under three major brands; Sauces, Ketchup, Baby foods and Convenience meals. Predominant focus is on driving continued global growth in Ketchup and sauces, largest core category with sales of $5 billion.Heinz recognises that consumers due to the economic recession have become more disciplined and frugal resulting in the launch of smaller packaging with a more affordable price points-new 10 ounce Heinz Ketchup pouch and other Heinz condiments retailed at $1 in the U. S. Heinz sees packaging innovation as a key aspect to global growth in Ketchup and S auces. It will launch the fully-recyclable PlantBottle packaging in partnership with Coco-cola and is expanding its Dip and Squeeze Ketchup globally, a dual-function foodservice package, which sold more than 1 billion in the U.S last year. .Heinz is determined to take its iconic mature brand to new geographies, for instance the acquisition of Quero, a leading brand of tomato sauces and Ketchup has provided a strong growth platform in the Brazilian market. It recognises if they are to compete in sauces they need to focus on the applicability of its brand, to make sure that the product suits its culture. The dominant condiment in sold in China is soy sauce, acquisition of Foodstar expanded Heinz presence in China’s rapidly growing $4 billion soy sauce market, while providing a growth platform for Ketchup.Beyond Ketchup and Sauces, Heinz continues to extend Infant/Nutrition and Meals and Snacks business. Heinz will target new clientele for these product offerings. It will place more emphasis on the first transaction rather than on the relationship marketing. It will target single mothers, bachelors and college students who are too busy to cook and are in need of some convenience food. Heinz is leveraging an advantaged, well-balanced portfolio led by accelerated growth in emerging markets.It is actively looking for new growth opportunities with Sales in emerging markets are expected to approach 25% in 2013. In order to drive productivity and leverage our scale capabilities; we will open 11 new factories around the world. Heinz expects organic sales growth of at least 4% and growth of 5% to 8% in constant currency earnings per share from continuing operations. We also expect a strong operating cash flow of more than $1 billion, with Ketchup and Sauces to approach 60% of total sales and our sales in Emerging markets doubling from $5 billion.

Categorical Imperative Command essays

Categorical Imperative Command essays Categorical Imperative commands state an act only on that maxim which you can at the same time will to a universal law. In other words an act that should be followed only if people will follow it. If you jumped off a bridge, think if everyone would do the same and it would become socially accepted. It states an interesting point if you think many of todays and the past legislature was in fact developed this way. Toss the people an idea and see if they follow it through time changing it to better accommodate the people and the views at the time. The bible was established based on the Ten Commandments a bunch of thoughts on how life should be lived by a form of rule structure in plain view. The people took on these rules and passed them on to eventually adapt to what's right. So when deciding most decisions one would think if the world would follow and if it would form into a solid ethic. The problem is every social structure from New Jersey to California from South America to Africa runs on a very different structure. Therefore, who is to say witch groups methods are the right ones to do. In Japan, it is customary to take off one's shoes when eating and in India the cow is sacred. Rules are developed differently as wide of a range as through a country or perhaps a county or even as small as a So how do you differentiate everyone's actions to dissect and arrive to the final answer of what is right. In addition, this rule does not seem to focus on what is right at all but what is socially accepted. In world war two, it was accepted to ridicule Jews everyone around you did it but did it make it right. It follows the rule to do what you think everyone around would do. So there are flaws within the rule that if one would follow it could lead to disaster depending on who exactly you are modeling after. One thing human's do from birth is follow or model after others. Wheth...

Types of Formatting for Academic Papers

Types of Formatting for Academic Papers Types of Formatting for Academic Papers Teachers commonly require academic papers to assess a student’s comprehension of a topic. Academic assessments often come in the form of research papers, which are defined as a person’s thoughts or perception of a topic based on thorough analysis. When writing an academic paper, be mindful of the following things. Common Types of Academic Papers Definition Papers Definition papers describe an idea from a factual perspective. These papers do not contain opinion or emotion. Although you may gather facts from different sources, the information is simply stated and supported. However, a definition paper can provide a good framework for persuasive, argumentative, or analytical papers. Argumentative Papers Argumentative papers present two sides of a scenario in one paper. Most good argumentative papers include in-text citations from different researchers and logical facts in support of both sides of the argument. Ultimately, these facts should conclude and culminate your analysis with the pros and cons of each side. The challenge in writing an argumentative paper is that while you are advocating for one side over the other, the way in which you present both arguments must remain neutral and factual. Persuasive Papers Persuasive papers choose a stance and provide logical arguments to defend that stance. Unlike argumentative papers, persuasive papers do not need to present ideas that support any opposing stance. It can also include more emotional and perspective-based opinions. Purpose of Academic Paper Formats When writing academic papers, the way you present your paper is crucial. Using the proper citing, referencing, and quoting of your sources allow for you to communicate your ideas in a manner that is shared by others in your field. Some of these formats include: Chicago Manual of Style The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is predominantly used in humanities, particularly literature, history, or the arts. Modern Language Association Style The Modern Language Association Style (MLA) is also popular with students of humanities. Artists, linguists, and theatre students have been using MLA for over 500 years. American Psychological Association Style The American Psychological Association Style (APA) is a set of rules and guidelines established by the American Psychological Association. This format is popular among students and practitioners of psychology, sociology, social work, and medicine. When working on your research paper, remember to pay extra attention to the way you format your source materials. Use the handouts that your teachers give you, or any online reference materials to ensure that all formatting is accurate. For expert advice in formatting your research paper, is here to help.

Strategic Financial Management(business report) Essay - 1

Strategic Financial Management(business report) - Essay Example According to Kanter (1995) such an action will not constitute an adequate response. This is so because success is based on an organisation’s ability to create, rather than predict the future by developing those products that will literally transform the way the world thinks and view it self and the needs (Kanter 1995:71). This paper is aimed at analyzing the case study of Amazon.com. In an attempt to implement a strategic and management turn around strategies by the CEO Jeff Bezos. The objectives of this paper can be examined from three dimensions. In the first instance, the paper seeks to outline, analyse and discuss the main issues concerning the case study Amazon.com. The first part of the paper provides the background while looking into the market in which the company is operating. The section also highlights the profitability and liquidity position of the company. Part two of the paper looks at the marketing strategies of the company by utilising the four Ps. The section further looks at the Human resource management strategies, operations analysis, the SWOT, PESTLE with respect to the case Amazon.com. The last part of the paper provides the conclusion and recommendation through the development of the strategic direction for the company. Amazon .com worldly known as Amazon is a key and strategic player in the field of electronic commerce. Being a worldwide brand selling virtually everything through its online shopping experience with customers. Today, Amazon serves customers in more than 200 countries through its several retail websites. Its e-commerce business model has become a benchmarking platform for other businesses to develop their e-business. Through its online shopping access webpage customers can shop virtually everything from financial services to diamond rings. Thus, to sum up, while operating as an online and e commerce supermarket,

PSY 420 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

PSY 420 - Essay Example I have been drinking alcohol since the past five years and it seems that I am not leaving this habit in the distant future. It started off with family problems and seeing my father drinking it influenced me to start with the habit of drinking. Emotional distress and parental influence was the main reason to start off with the habit. In order to handle the increasing misery which was caused due to many problems (financial and family) I resorted to the drinking of alcohol. At first it provided me a sense of relief but a point came when the distress began to mount all over again. People start the habit of drinking due to many reasons which mainly include emotional distress. According to some theories drinking of alcohol provides relief to increasing stress. (Cooper et al., 1988) A time comes when a person feels like evading himself from the reality and that is the time when he gets the urge to drink.(Wills and Hirky, 1996) Drinking of alcohol is commonly found amongst the young generation. This is because young people start the drinking process thinking that it would lead to the betterment of their frame of mind. (Frone and Windle, 1997) Recent research has proved that if alcohol does not satisfy one’s emotional needs then it can lead to the usage of more alcohol. (Wunschel et al., 1993) To further prove this a ten year model research was conducted to find out about the relationship between alcohol consumption and the coping up with emotional distress. The ten year model showed that if drinking helped in coping with the emotional distress the consumpt ion of alcohol increased but if it did not the consumption decreased. (Holahan, Moos, Holahan, Cronkite , & Randall 2001) The relationship between a child and parent is an important one and the parent is a great source of influence for the child. Through the observation of ancestral and parental habits children pick up the influential practices. Observing

Choose two ads from popular magizines. Do a pre-write in which you Essay

Choose two ads from popular magizines. Do a pre-write in which you consider what elements these ads have in comman, and what ele - Essay Example Both these advertisements have catchy captions and provide stark images to the consumer that will be able to have an impact on his mind on viewing. They are persuasive in nature and have been analyzed and explained below. The advertisement from Nike is a very different and innovative one, something not most business enterprises would be able to publish in the print media. This is because it shows a young boy peeing in the corner with a caption that reads â€Å"Just Do It†. It is indeed a very persuasive and catchy to the image as well. The entire image tries to depict and make a consumer understand on his sub conscious level, how important it is to just do things without thinking twice about them. It tries to make people understand that mostly when people think about carrying out an action a few more times, they chicken out by the entire idea and are not able to follow through or implement. With the help of the young boy in the image, it tries to tell people that when they wer e young, they did not have a care in their minds and would just do whatever they felt like. However, with age comes responsibility and most of the times the heavy weight of the responsibility that people carry on their shoulders, weighs them down and they are unable to do things for themselves. This advertisement has helped to bridge that very gap by showing the young boy peeing on the road – an indication of a young carefree mind, not bothering about the implications and ‘just doing it’; in this case, ‘just buying’ products from the brand Nike. (Nike) The second advertisement from the Condomshop.ch is a image of a naked man standing with three soldiers in a war zone, completely armed and thus, ‘protected’. This ad is from a company of condoms and thus is trying to tell the consumers how important it is to be protected while having sexual intercourse with their partners. With the help of the soldiers and guns in the war zone, the adverti sement helps the consumer to form an image in their heads of the particular condom providing the best results. It is an analogy that suggests that the condom will provide as much protection to the men that make use of it, as arms and bullet proof clothing provide soldiers in a war like environment. Again, it is a very persuasive advertisement with the tag line ‘Don’t Be Stupid’. This indicates a very simple and concise manner of portraying how one should not fall prey to the implications that not using a condom might have i.e. unplanned pregnancies and thus in order to avoid all that and not be stupid, one should make use of the condom from Condomshop.ch which provides the maximum amount of protection. (Condomshop.ch) Both the advertisements thus are quite rhetoric in nature as they suggest exactly what they portray in the images. On viewing, it instantly hits the consumer’s mind about what the images might be suggesting or trying to say. Both advertisemen ts also have a very simple and catchy line that people are able to remember with ease. This is a very good strategy to use because simple captions help to attract more consumers and play in their heads all the time, making them finally make use of or purchase the product or services. Both advertisements also present images that the consumer is able to relate with very easily. They are also fairly explicit in nature, suggesting a very probable as well as obvious statement to the consumer. Thus, they make for very good marketing strategies for the both the

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Abstract- In the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) domain, researchers have always wondered about which principles and models to adopt for the development of collaborative applications capable to really meet the needs of their users. However, these users requirements are unpredictable and depend on several task or environment-related factors. Integrated collaborative environments are rarely open, extensible and reconfigurable enough so as to meet these requirements. This paper presents an environment, called LEICA (Loosely-coupled Environment for Integrating Collaborative Applications), allowing the integration of existing cooperative applications. LEICA adopts a loosely-coupled integration approach which is based on Web services Services technology, an event notification system, and the definition of Collaboration Policies to control the interactions among integrated applications. LEICA allows different functionalities of existing applications to be dynamically combined and controlled, enhancing therefore the flexibility. Through a case study we show how LEICA was successfully used to integrate three collaborative applications: a co-browsing tool, an instant messaging tool and a VoIP conference controller. Index Terms-Collaborative work, integrated collaborative environments, web services. INTRODUCTION Advances in networking and computing technologies, combined with the fact that companies and work teams are becoming geographically distributed, have created increased a need for communication technologies to ease distance collaboration among distributed individuals (virtual work teams). This leads to the appearing of the so-called Integrated Collaboration Environments (ICEs), having as main goal to integrate different collaborative applications together into a single easy-to-use operational environment [1]. Users needs are very frequently unpredictable and depending on several emerging factors, including the size of the workgroup, the collaborative activities to be accomplished, the intensiveness of the required communications, the coordination policy and the communication needs of the workgroup. Therefore, the possibility of dynamically integrating new functionalities to the environment appears as an important characteristic for collaborative applications [3]. Supporting the integration of new collaborative functionalities reflects how flexible the environment is while responding to unpredictable users needs. We can define this characteristic as integration flexibility that denotes the ease with which an ICE can be its functionalities in response to the users needs. Nowadays one of the main problems of ICEs is that their lack of integration flexibility and as consequence various users decide to set-up their own environments composing different collaborative applications executed independently. In this case, each application is completely isolated from others, without any possibility of coordination among them. This lack of integration can lead to a loss of control from the part of the user, since the operation environment is particularly artificial. Promoting the integration flexibility of ICEs could bring significant benefits to users, allowing different functionalities of existing applications to be dynamically combined and controlled (enhancing therefore the flexibility itself). For instance, a whiteboard application can be integrated with an instant messaging application in such a way that whenever a user joins an instant messaging room, he is automatically logged into the same whiteboard session, instead of been forced to manually login into a session of each one of these collaborative tools. Another case could be the integration of a distributed game and an audio conference application. Whenever a user avatar enters a level/place into the game, his is logged into the audio conference session associated to that level/place, so that the users can online discuss with each other. In order to achieve the integration of existing collaborative applications without having to deal with their low-level features, this work presents LEICA, a Loosely-coupled Environment for Integrating Collaborative Applications. Relying on Web services Services (WS) technologies and an event notification system, different collaborative applications can interoperate by exchanging information within the context of a global collaborative session. The loosely-coupled approach proposed by LEICA overcomes a key problem usually related to integration environments it does not require a true semantic integration of applications. Accordingly, it supports further integration possibilities, such as the integration of third party applications, enhancing, thus, flexibility. LEICA also offers flexibility in the level of the integration semantics. Based on Collaboration Policies to control the interactions between integrated applications, LEICA provides means to define how the collaboration activity supported by one collaborative application will be affected by information received from other collaborative applications. In practice, these collaborative applications interact through the notification of events which may lead to performing specific action(s) in some of these applications themselves. As we will explain later in detail, we think that once a collaborative session has been configured, the use of LEICA can improve users productivity by reducing the application-related administrative tasks, focusing precisely on the collaboration activity itself, and all that by just by interpreting the rules stated for a particular session, all this in function of some pre-established policy rules (also to be explained in detail later). In this way users will find a more natural collaboration environment from the users point of view. In order to illustrate the usability of LEICA in real-world conditions, this paper presents a case study that demonstrates the capability of LEICA to integrate collaborative applications. In this case study, LEICA was successfully used to integrate three collaborative applications: a co-browsing tool, instant messaging tool and a VoIP conference controller. The paper is structured as follows. Section II presents related work regarding the integration of CSCW systems. Section III overviews the general integration approach proposed by LEICA. Section IV explains how to specify Collaboration Policies. Section V presents the LEICAs architecture, detailing how to integrate applications in practice. Some implementation issues are considered in section VI. Section VII describes a case study illustrating the use of LEICA. Finally, in section VIII we draw some conclusions and presents directions of future work. RELATED WORK There are several works oriented to improving integration flexibility of collaborative environments. In this context, four main approaches can be identified: user-tailorable solutions; CSCW toolkits; middleware based solutions; and platforms for integration of heterogeneous collaborative systems. User-Tailorable Solutions As stated in [2], different definitions of tailorability can be found in the literature. Most of them focus on user tailorability ([3], [4], [5] [6]) defining that a tailorable application can be adapted and modified by its own users in order to meet their different requirements. In CSCW, tailorability must focus on the requirements of the group task and of the organization, in which the CSCW system is used [5]. Actually, tailorability is one of the main concerns of groupware development methods. For example, application of participatory design methods ([7] [8]) has been proposed in order to approach the user involvement during groupware development, augmenting thus the opportunities for tailoring. According to [6], tailoring can be supported in three different levels: customization, selecting among a set of predefined configuration options; integration, linking together predefined components within or between applications; extension, improving the implementation by adding new program code. Most of user-tailorable groupware tools support only the customization or integration level (e.g. [2] [9]). Note that the integration level supposes that the functionality to be integrated has been pre-developed and is available somewhere [6]. Only at the extension level users would be able to integrate new functionalities, even if they have not been anticipated by developers at design time. A method frequently used for supporting tailoring at the extension level is the component-based tailoring. For example, in [10], components are implemented using Flexibeans (an extension of the Java Beans model) and end-users tailor the system using a composition language. In [11], end-users may assemble components into larger composite components using the visual representation rather than writing lines of code. However, even at the extension level the integration flexibility is partial as the integration of existing collaborative systems or groupware would require them to be redesigned according to the system architecture. CSCW Toolkits CSCW toolkits ease the implementation of CSCW systems by providing reusable components and behaviors designed to be applicable in a range of circumstances [12]. The need for flexibility and tailorability in CSCW toolkits is well acknowledged. The Neem Platform [13] offers a generic (application-neutral) evolvable framework upon which socially and culturally aware applications are developed. Flexibility and extensibility in Neem result from its foundation on a core architectural coordination model [13]: decoupled components interact indirectly through message exchanges. Intermezzo [14] is a collaboration support environment supporting the coordination information sharing, offering fluid interactions, user awareness, session management and policy control. It addresses dynamic flexibility [12] by allowing applications to adapt not just their own behavior, but also the behavior of the toolkit in reacting to the changing dynamics of the world they run into. The Groupware Toolkit/Shared Dictionary (or GT/SD) toolkit [15][16] has been developed to support rapid development of groupware, focusing mainly on networking and data sharing aspects. GT/SDs extensibility is based on its modular design, which allows adding or modifying behavior by replacing or wrapping different components. Toolkits may represent an interesting solution for helping the development of CSCW systems, as they promote the reuse of components. But in general, CSCW toolkits offer a limited set of functionalities or they are target for some specific kind of domain. Besides, to reuse components of the toolkit, developers often need to implement very specific details of the toolkit in order to adapt it to the application needs [16][17]. Middleware based solutions The integration of heterogeneous applications has been a widely investigated subject, mainly in distributed systems area. General integration solutions based on middleware, like CCM (CORBA Component Model), .NET and Enterprise JavaBeans have been developed. Moreover, integration solutions associated with specific domains have also been proposed, such as Enterprise Application Integration systems [17][18]. The emergence of Web services WS has also led to the development of general solutions for integration of distributed applications, due mainly to the use of open standards. In the CSCW domain, some middleware-based solutions have been proposed. Dustdar et al. [18][19] discuss the importance of using Web services WS in order to provide collaborative application interoperability. But in order to be integrated, collaborative applications must originally support Web servicesWS. Even if Web servicesWS represent an emerging software trend, only a limited set of collaborative applications are currently supporting these technologies. As an enhancement to traditional middleware, some SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) solutions have also been proposed. For example, WGWSOA [19][20] uses Web ServicesWS as an access interface in order to support the reuse and the interoperability of different collaborative services. But an important drawback of WGWSOA is that collaborative services must be developed following the respective middleware architecture. It is also important to note that like WGWSOA, most middleware based solutions present technical responses to the so called syntactic interoperability [20][21]. They provide mechanisms allowing applications to communicate and interact through information exchange. But according to [21][22], the integration concept goes beyond the possibility of sharing and exchanging specific information. Applications must agree upon the meaning (or the semantics) of these exchanges. In other words, integration solutions should provide means for defining integration semantics. Thus, interoperability can be seen as a requirement for integration. The EcoSpace Project [22][23] proposes an environment that, besides being based on SOA and Web servicesWS, relies on Semantic Web technologies (WSDL-S with services ontologies) to support semantic description of collaborative services. Besides a semantic description of each service, it would be necessary a semantic description of the composition of services so as to coordinate their orchestration. However, this part of the project remains as design aspect. Moreover, using Web serviceWSs as integration technology may imply some performance loss, particularly associated to the use of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) [23][24]. Luo et al. [24][25] claim that Web ServicesWS should be only used in situations which are really heterogeneous. They propose a service-oriented solution for the integration of collaborative applications that, instead of using SOAP, adopts a unified service bus (implemented through an open source Enterprise Service Bus). Platforms for integrating heterogeneous collaborative systems The latter latest approach to improve the integration flexibility of collaborative environments is to create platforms aiming specifically at the integration of collaborative applications. They focus on the integration of collaborative functionalities provided by these applications while trying to define any semantics behind integration. Iqbal et al. [25][26] propose an integrative framework based on the three-level model presented by [26][27]: the Ontological Model specifies shared objects, their relations and taxonomies; the Coordination Model specifies how interactions take place during system execution; and the User Interface Model specifies how the system is presented to the final user. Integration process consists firstly in identifying, for each collaborative application, the elements associated with these three models. Then, on each level the elements from different applications are grouped and merged when equivalent. As a result, common ontological, coordination and user interface models are generated. In spite of enabling a multi-level integration, this approach requires an internal knowledge of the collaborative applications so that their functionalities can be mapped into the three-level model. Accordingly, the integration of third party applications becomes a complex task. In order to avoid considering application internals during the integration process (facilitating the integration of existing applications), some integration solutions propose the so called loosely-coupled approach. This approach presents two main features: (i) once integrated to the environment, collaborative applications preserve their autonomy, i.e., they can still be used as standalone application; (ii) the integration environment remains independent of integrated applications, and accordingly, applications can be integrated and detached from the environment without compromising its behavior. This last feature is particularly important considering the integration flexibility aspect. In fact, in a loosely-coupled environment, the set of integrated applications must be easily modified according to users needs. Systems like AREA [27][28] and NESSIE [28][29] have proposed a loosely-coupled integration for supporting cross-application awareness. Both systems represent a collaborative environment where independent applications can share a common information space, implemented through an event notification system. Users can receive notifications of activity relevant events from different applications (executed by other users). An important aspect of these systems is the use of open Internet technologies (such as HTTP and CGI) to enable the integration of third party collaborative applications. However, the main drawback of both systems is that the integration semantics is statically defined collaborative applications are integrated so as to offer a common awareness of the whole collaboration activity. Another proposal also based on a loosely-coupled approach is the framework XGSP [29][30]. XGSP proposes the integration of audio and videoconferencing tools based on SIP and H.323 standards, as well as the integration of Access Grid applications [30][31]. In this framework, XGSP manager servers are in charge of controlling collaborative sessions. A different gateway is defined for each application type (i.e. SIP, H.323 and Access Grid applications). Using a signaling protocol based on Web servicesWS, these gateways are employed to mediate the communication between applications and XGSP servers. An important disadvantage of XGSP is the fact that, originally, it only allows the integration of application based on SIP, H.323 and Access Grid. Loosely-coupling is also inherent to the Web servicesWS based solutions presented in the previous section. Similarly to those solutions, LEICA represents an integration environment that proposes a loosely-coupled approach based on Web servicesWS technologies. Regarding the performance implications of SOAP, Alonso et al. [31][32] suggest that Web ServicesWS technologies should be used only to implement coarse-gained interactions, where the impact of the overhead associated to SOAP would be less important. Following the recommendations of [31][32], Web servicesWS are employed by LEICA for coarse-grained operations only. As it will be detailed in the following sections, LEICA defines a hybrid architecture where Web ServicesWS are applied as an initial mechanism for registering newly integrated applications, as well as for setting and starting up collaborative sessions. Then, during the execution of integrated collaborative sessions a different infrastructure is used to interconnect collaborative applications. Another important aspect concerns integration semantics. Unlike the previous solutions, LEICA provides users with the possibility to define the desired integration semantics for each collaborative session. The Integration Environment: LEICA LEICA aims at the integration of different collaborative applications, where integration semantics is to be defined according to user requirements. Before explaining the general integration approach and the behavior of LEICA, a possible scenario is presented to better illustrate the advantages of such integration. Integration Scenario An important domain where collaborative environments have been largely used is e-Learning. In particular, a CVE (Collaborative Virtual Environment) can be used to implement a 3D shared world representing a school building divided into: one entrance hall, classrooms, and teachers rooms. Different collaborative applications could be associated to each room: (i) a chat room associated to the entrance hall; (ii) a collaborative web browsing (it would enable teachers to guide students through lecture notes) and an audio conference tool associated to the classrooms; and (iii) a shared whiteboard associated to each of the teachers room. Un paragraphe pour montrer la situation: Utilisation des outils non integrà ©es, et lintà ©gration avec LEICA. With this integration semantics, whenever an avatar enters into a room, the respective user is automatically connected to the associated collaborative application(s). Besides, only authorized users should enter into private rooms (e.g. the teachers rooms with its whiteboard could be restricted to teachers). Another possible behavior specified by this integration semantics is some kind of floor coupling between the two applications used as a support for virtual class sessions. This way, it would be possible to assure that the user holding the Web browsing floor (i.e. the one guiding the lecture notes browsing) is the only one to have the right to speak to the class attendees. General Integration Approach As previously mentioned, and illustrated in Fig. 1, LEICA follows a hybrid architecture where Web ServicesWS are applied at the collaborative sessions start up, and an event notification system allows collaborative applications to interact through the exchange of event notifications. Two other basic components of LEICA are the Wrappers and the Session Configuration Service (SCS). The integration of a collaborative application to LEICA is achieved by attaching a Wrapper to it. Three main cases may be considered: a) open source applications, b) API-based applications, and c) applications without any available API. Integration of open source applications can achieve the tightest interaction degree, since any internal event/action can be exported/performed; it might however imply great development efforts. API-based integration is straightforward, and interaction is limited to the provided API. Applications without API are the most limitating ones, constraining to interact only through application start and stop actions. LEICAs integration approach is mainly driven by case (b), believing that developers are certainly interested in creating specific and performable collaboration tools that can be used either stand-alone or integrated with other applications (through a flexible API, being able to get a great share of the market). This is for instance the case of Skypeâ„ ¢, a successful example of communication tool that has released its API since some time ago. Fig. 2 summarizes LEICAs general integration framework. The first step of the LEICAs integration framework is the Collaborative Application Integration. For instance, in the illustrative scenario presented in III.A, the first step to integrate the CVE with the instant messenger (supporting the chat room associated to the entrance hall), the collaborative Web browser and the audio conference applications, it is necessary to create a Wrapper for each one of these applications. As detailed in Section V, these wrappers can be automatically generated by LEICAs API Factory, based on the API description of each collaborative application. The Wrappers comprise a Web services Services WS interface allowing the collaborative application to register itself with LEICA. As illustrated by Fig. 1, through the Wrappers Web servicesWS ports, the integrated application can interact with the Session Configuration Service (SCS). The SCS is a Web service Service WS used for (i) configuring new global SuperSessions and (ii) starting up SuperSessions. A SuperSession is an integrated collaborative session holding the whole collaboration activity. Within the context of a global SuperSession, different specificSessions can exist. A specificSession is a conventional collaborative session defined within the context of a collaborative application (e.g. a videoconference session, a whiteboard session, etc.). The SCS dynamically contacts each integrated application, during the SuperSession configuration process, in order to request: (i) which specific data is required to create specificSessions for this respective application (e.g. a videoconference tool could require an IP multicast address); and (ii) which kind of events it can notify, and action requests it can handle. The interaction degree among the integrated applications depends essentially on the nature of the events they are able to exchange, and actions they are able to perform. In order to create a SuperSession, a user must define its integration semantics. It is accomplished by configuring the Collaboration Policy. A Collaboration Policy is a set of rules under a condition/action model. These rules define how collaborative applications must react when receiving information (events) notified by other integrated applications. In other words, the specification of Collaboration Policies allows defining specific integration semantics (i.e. how to coordinate integrated applications) to each SuperSession, according to the different users requirements. Once a SuperSessions has been created (and its associated configuration file is generated), it can finally be started up. The SCS firstly contacts each integrated collaborative application requesting them to create the specificSessions defined in the SuperSession. Then, during the execution of collaborative sessions the integrated application can interact through the exchange of event using the Event Notification System. According to predefined Collaboration Policies, these notifications may lead specific actions to be performed. Wrappers are in charge of managing the SuperSessions Collaboration Policy. When the Wrapper of a collaborative application receives event notifications, it verifies if the notified events enable any policy rule concerning this collaborative application. If so, the Wrapper sends action requests to the respective application. Note that LEICA is not intended to support low-level physical events (e.g. mouse click/scrolling) or high frequency synchronization events (e.g. current position of moving objects). It aims at supporting activity relevant events that carry some semantics. SuperSession Concept As previously mentioned, LEICA controls the whole collaboration activity within the context of a global SuperSession. A SuperSession model has been defined in order to precisely identify and describe its components. Based on this model, LEICA maintains concise and coherent SuperSession state information. Furthermore, a well-defined taxonomy of the components and their attributes are also implied from the model. General models for describing collaborative applications have already been proposed in the literature. Some of them [26][27] [32][33] represent a conceptual or ontological model describing the entities and relationships of individual CSCW systems. Few models aim at describing integrated CSCW systems, like OOActSM [33][34] and the conceptual model presented in [34][35]. However, these models are based on the notion of a general activity as the central abstraction, which was considered rather abstract for a detailed specification of the SuperSession. Nevertheless, these models have inspired several concepts adopted in the defined SuperSession model. The SuperSession represents a collaboration activity involving different integrated applications, a group of users and general roles associated to these users. Formally, a CIE Session CS is a tuple: SS = (SSid, CA , NA , Rl , U , SSat) where: SSid is a unique identifier; CA = {CAi } | i ÃŽ [1,I]} is a finite set of collaborative applications where CAi = (CAidi, spSi, CAati) a specific collaborative application running a set of specificSessions (sSi). CAati is a list of attributes characterizing the collaborative application. These attributes provide information about the application description, including name, type, whether it is a role-based application, its distribution architecture (client/server, multi-servers, peer-to-peer) and the type of user applications (stand-alone or webWeb-based).); NA is a finite set of non-collaborative applications (data converters, databases, web applications, etc.); Rl = {Rlk } | k ÃŽ [1,K]} is a finite set of general roles. The concept of general role refers to a group of users owning the same set of responsibilities and privileges inside LEICA; Rlk = (Rlidk , Rlatk). Rlidk is a unique role identifier; and Rlatk is a list of attributes characterizing this general role. This list provides details like roles description, membership and administration rights. Regarding the membership, it defines how the role is associated with users: it may be either (i) a static association (there is a membership list), (ii) an automatic association (there is a predicate function based on users parameters and SuperSession state) or (iii) a users choice (password protected or not).); U = {Ul } | l ÃŽ [1,L]} is a finite set of connected users; Ul = (Uidl, URlidl, Mbl, Uatl) represent a user, where Uidl is a unique identifier; URlidl is one general role associated with the user; Mbl is a finite set of membership relations; Uatl is a list of attributes (name, email, IP address, network connection, device type, etc.); Mbl.n = (mCAidl.n , mSidl.n , msRlidl.n) is a membership relation, where mCAidl.n is an application identifier; mSidl.n is a specificSession identifier; msRlidl.n is a finite set of specific roles identifiers. Thus, each membership relation indicates the participation of a connected user to a specificSession of a collaborative application (once connected to the SuperSession, a user can concurrently take part in none, one or more specificSessions of different collaborative applications); SSat is a list of attributes characterizing the SuperSession. These attributes describe information like session context (name, purpose, etc.), scheduling (if scheduled or not, duration, etc.), accessibility type (open or closed), role association type (how users are associated to a general role) and maximum number of connected users. A specificSession regards a conventional collaborative session of a collaborative application. The role of the specificSession entity (spSi.m), wich is formally represented by the tuple: spSi.m = (Sidi.m, sRli.m, pUidi.m, Rsi.m, spSati.m) is not to precisely describe each aspect of a collaborative task. Instead, it captures relevant elements like the specific roles defined for this session (sRli.m), the users participating to this session (pUidi.m.) and the shared resources accessed by these users (Rsi.m). A specific role is a tuple, sRli.m.o = (sRlidi.m.o, sRlati.m.o), where sRlidi.m.o is a specific role identifier and sRlati.m.o is a list of attributes characterizing the specific role (description and maximum number of simultaneous users). A resource is also a tuple Rsi.m.p= (urli.m.p, Rsati.m.p ), where urli.m.p is a resource locator and Rsati.m.p is a list of attributes characterizing the resource. The purpose of the resource element is simply to allow the implementation of an inter-application access control mechanism. LEICA will not need to keep the state of each resource. Thus, resources attributes just describe its type (file, device, virtual object, interface widget, etc.) and the read/write access type (exclusive or concurrent). SuperSession Configuration In order to create a SuperSession, a two step configuration process is carried out: (i) Session Management configuration and (ii) Collaboration Policy configuration. In the first configuration step, two groups of information should be specified: General Session Management information (GSMinfo): It carries management information such as scheduling, membership and general user roles.; Integrated Applications information (IAinfo): It defines the list of integrated applications to be used during this SuperSession; for each collaborative application, a list of specificSessions is defined, where specific data required by this application for creating sessions is provided (e.g. a videoconference application will be provided with an IP multicast address). Once Session Management configuration is completed, the Collaboration Polic Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Abstract- In the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) domain, researchers have always wondered about which principles and models to adopt for the development of collaborative applications capable to really meet the needs of their users. However, these users requirements are unpredictable and depend on several task or environment-related factors. Integrated collaborative environments are rarely open, extensible and reconfigurable enough so as to meet these requirements. This paper presents an environment, called LEICA (Loosely-coupled Environment for Integrating Collaborative Applications), allowing the integration of existing cooperative applications. LEICA adopts a loosely-coupled integration approach which is based on Web services Services technology, an event notification system, and the definition of Collaboration Policies to control the interactions among integrated applications. LEICA allows different functionalities of existing applications to be dynamically combined and controlled, enhancing therefore the flexibility. Through a case study we show how LEICA was successfully used to integrate three collaborative applications: a co-browsing tool, an instant messaging tool and a VoIP conference controller. Index Terms-Collaborative work, integrated collaborative environments, web services. INTRODUCTION Advances in networking and computing technologies, combined with the fact that companies and work teams are becoming geographically distributed, have created increased a need for communication technologies to ease distance collaboration among distributed individuals (virtual work teams). This leads to the appearing of the so-called Integrated Collaboration Environments (ICEs), having as main goal to integrate different collaborative applications together into a single easy-to-use operational environment [1]. Users needs are very frequently unpredictable and depending on several emerging factors, including the size of the workgroup, the collaborative activities to be accomplished, the intensiveness of the required communications, the coordination policy and the communication needs of the workgroup. Therefore, the possibility of dynamically integrating new functionalities to the environment appears as an important characteristic for collaborative applications [3]. Supporting the integration of new collaborative functionalities reflects how flexible the environment is while responding to unpredictable users needs. We can define this characteristic as integration flexibility that denotes the ease with which an ICE can be its functionalities in response to the users needs. Nowadays one of the main problems of ICEs is that their lack of integration flexibility and as consequence various users decide to set-up their own environments composing different collaborative applications executed independently. In this case, each application is completely isolated from others, without any possibility of coordination among them. This lack of integration can lead to a loss of control from the part of the user, since the operation environment is particularly artificial. Promoting the integration flexibility of ICEs could bring significant benefits to users, allowing different functionalities of existing applications to be dynamically combined and controlled (enhancing therefore the flexibility itself). For instance, a whiteboard application can be integrated with an instant messaging application in such a way that whenever a user joins an instant messaging room, he is automatically logged into the same whiteboard session, instead of been forced to manually login into a session of each one of these collaborative tools. Another case could be the integration of a distributed game and an audio conference application. Whenever a user avatar enters a level/place into the game, his is logged into the audio conference session associated to that level/place, so that the users can online discuss with each other. In order to achieve the integration of existing collaborative applications without having to deal with their low-level features, this work presents LEICA, a Loosely-coupled Environment for Integrating Collaborative Applications. Relying on Web services Services (WS) technologies and an event notification system, different collaborative applications can interoperate by exchanging information within the context of a global collaborative session. The loosely-coupled approach proposed by LEICA overcomes a key problem usually related to integration environments it does not require a true semantic integration of applications. Accordingly, it supports further integration possibilities, such as the integration of third party applications, enhancing, thus, flexibility. LEICA also offers flexibility in the level of the integration semantics. Based on Collaboration Policies to control the interactions between integrated applications, LEICA provides means to define how the collaboration activity supported by one collaborative application will be affected by information received from other collaborative applications. In practice, these collaborative applications interact through the notification of events which may lead to performing specific action(s) in some of these applications themselves. As we will explain later in detail, we think that once a collaborative session has been configured, the use of LEICA can improve users productivity by reducing the application-related administrative tasks, focusing precisely on the collaboration activity itself, and all that by just by interpreting the rules stated for a particular session, all this in function of some pre-established policy rules (also to be explained in detail later). In this way users will find a more natural collaboration environment from the users point of view. In order to illustrate the usability of LEICA in real-world conditions, this paper presents a case study that demonstrates the capability of LEICA to integrate collaborative applications. In this case study, LEICA was successfully used to integrate three collaborative applications: a co-browsing tool, instant messaging tool and a VoIP conference controller. The paper is structured as follows. Section II presents related work regarding the integration of CSCW systems. Section III overviews the general integration approach proposed by LEICA. Section IV explains how to specify Collaboration Policies. Section V presents the LEICAs architecture, detailing how to integrate applications in practice. Some implementation issues are considered in section VI. Section VII describes a case study illustrating the use of LEICA. Finally, in section VIII we draw some conclusions and presents directions of future work. RELATED WORK There are several works oriented to improving integration flexibility of collaborative environments. In this context, four main approaches can be identified: user-tailorable solutions; CSCW toolkits; middleware based solutions; and platforms for integration of heterogeneous collaborative systems. User-Tailorable Solutions As stated in [2], different definitions of tailorability can be found in the literature. Most of them focus on user tailorability ([3], [4], [5] [6]) defining that a tailorable application can be adapted and modified by its own users in order to meet their different requirements. In CSCW, tailorability must focus on the requirements of the group task and of the organization, in which the CSCW system is used [5]. Actually, tailorability is one of the main concerns of groupware development methods. For example, application of participatory design methods ([7] [8]) has been proposed in order to approach the user involvement during groupware development, augmenting thus the opportunities for tailoring. According to [6], tailoring can be supported in three different levels: customization, selecting among a set of predefined configuration options; integration, linking together predefined components within or between applications; extension, improving the implementation by adding new program code. Most of user-tailorable groupware tools support only the customization or integration level (e.g. [2] [9]). Note that the integration level supposes that the functionality to be integrated has been pre-developed and is available somewhere [6]. Only at the extension level users would be able to integrate new functionalities, even if they have not been anticipated by developers at design time. A method frequently used for supporting tailoring at the extension level is the component-based tailoring. For example, in [10], components are implemented using Flexibeans (an extension of the Java Beans model) and end-users tailor the system using a composition language. In [11], end-users may assemble components into larger composite components using the visual representation rather than writing lines of code. However, even at the extension level the integration flexibility is partial as the integration of existing collaborative systems or groupware would require them to be redesigned according to the system architecture. CSCW Toolkits CSCW toolkits ease the implementation of CSCW systems by providing reusable components and behaviors designed to be applicable in a range of circumstances [12]. The need for flexibility and tailorability in CSCW toolkits is well acknowledged. The Neem Platform [13] offers a generic (application-neutral) evolvable framework upon which socially and culturally aware applications are developed. Flexibility and extensibility in Neem result from its foundation on a core architectural coordination model [13]: decoupled components interact indirectly through message exchanges. Intermezzo [14] is a collaboration support environment supporting the coordination information sharing, offering fluid interactions, user awareness, session management and policy control. It addresses dynamic flexibility [12] by allowing applications to adapt not just their own behavior, but also the behavior of the toolkit in reacting to the changing dynamics of the world they run into. The Groupware Toolkit/Shared Dictionary (or GT/SD) toolkit [15][16] has been developed to support rapid development of groupware, focusing mainly on networking and data sharing aspects. GT/SDs extensibility is based on its modular design, which allows adding or modifying behavior by replacing or wrapping different components. Toolkits may represent an interesting solution for helping the development of CSCW systems, as they promote the reuse of components. But in general, CSCW toolkits offer a limited set of functionalities or they are target for some specific kind of domain. Besides, to reuse components of the toolkit, developers often need to implement very specific details of the toolkit in order to adapt it to the application needs [16][17]. Middleware based solutions The integration of heterogeneous applications has been a widely investigated subject, mainly in distributed systems area. General integration solutions based on middleware, like CCM (CORBA Component Model), .NET and Enterprise JavaBeans have been developed. Moreover, integration solutions associated with specific domains have also been proposed, such as Enterprise Application Integration systems [17][18]. The emergence of Web services WS has also led to the development of general solutions for integration of distributed applications, due mainly to the use of open standards. In the CSCW domain, some middleware-based solutions have been proposed. Dustdar et al. [18][19] discuss the importance of using Web services WS in order to provide collaborative application interoperability. But in order to be integrated, collaborative applications must originally support Web servicesWS. Even if Web servicesWS represent an emerging software trend, only a limited set of collaborative applications are currently supporting these technologies. As an enhancement to traditional middleware, some SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) solutions have also been proposed. For example, WGWSOA [19][20] uses Web ServicesWS as an access interface in order to support the reuse and the interoperability of different collaborative services. But an important drawback of WGWSOA is that collaborative services must be developed following the respective middleware architecture. It is also important to note that like WGWSOA, most middleware based solutions present technical responses to the so called syntactic interoperability [20][21]. They provide mechanisms allowing applications to communicate and interact through information exchange. But according to [21][22], the integration concept goes beyond the possibility of sharing and exchanging specific information. Applications must agree upon the meaning (or the semantics) of these exchanges. In other words, integration solutions should provide means for defining integration semantics. Thus, interoperability can be seen as a requirement for integration. The EcoSpace Project [22][23] proposes an environment that, besides being based on SOA and Web servicesWS, relies on Semantic Web technologies (WSDL-S with services ontologies) to support semantic description of collaborative services. Besides a semantic description of each service, it would be necessary a semantic description of the composition of services so as to coordinate their orchestration. However, this part of the project remains as design aspect. Moreover, using Web serviceWSs as integration technology may imply some performance loss, particularly associated to the use of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) [23][24]. Luo et al. [24][25] claim that Web ServicesWS should be only used in situations which are really heterogeneous. They propose a service-oriented solution for the integration of collaborative applications that, instead of using SOAP, adopts a unified service bus (implemented through an open source Enterprise Service Bus). Platforms for integrating heterogeneous collaborative systems The latter latest approach to improve the integration flexibility of collaborative environments is to create platforms aiming specifically at the integration of collaborative applications. They focus on the integration of collaborative functionalities provided by these applications while trying to define any semantics behind integration. Iqbal et al. [25][26] propose an integrative framework based on the three-level model presented by [26][27]: the Ontological Model specifies shared objects, their relations and taxonomies; the Coordination Model specifies how interactions take place during system execution; and the User Interface Model specifies how the system is presented to the final user. Integration process consists firstly in identifying, for each collaborative application, the elements associated with these three models. Then, on each level the elements from different applications are grouped and merged when equivalent. As a result, common ontological, coordination and user interface models are generated. In spite of enabling a multi-level integration, this approach requires an internal knowledge of the collaborative applications so that their functionalities can be mapped into the three-level model. Accordingly, the integration of third party applications becomes a complex task. In order to avoid considering application internals during the integration process (facilitating the integration of existing applications), some integration solutions propose the so called loosely-coupled approach. This approach presents two main features: (i) once integrated to the environment, collaborative applications preserve their autonomy, i.e., they can still be used as standalone application; (ii) the integration environment remains independent of integrated applications, and accordingly, applications can be integrated and detached from the environment without compromising its behavior. This last feature is particularly important considering the integration flexibility aspect. In fact, in a loosely-coupled environment, the set of integrated applications must be easily modified according to users needs. Systems like AREA [27][28] and NESSIE [28][29] have proposed a loosely-coupled integration for supporting cross-application awareness. Both systems represent a collaborative environment where independent applications can share a common information space, implemented through an event notification system. Users can receive notifications of activity relevant events from different applications (executed by other users). An important aspect of these systems is the use of open Internet technologies (such as HTTP and CGI) to enable the integration of third party collaborative applications. However, the main drawback of both systems is that the integration semantics is statically defined collaborative applications are integrated so as to offer a common awareness of the whole collaboration activity. Another proposal also based on a loosely-coupled approach is the framework XGSP [29][30]. XGSP proposes the integration of audio and videoconferencing tools based on SIP and H.323 standards, as well as the integration of Access Grid applications [30][31]. In this framework, XGSP manager servers are in charge of controlling collaborative sessions. A different gateway is defined for each application type (i.e. SIP, H.323 and Access Grid applications). Using a signaling protocol based on Web servicesWS, these gateways are employed to mediate the communication between applications and XGSP servers. An important disadvantage of XGSP is the fact that, originally, it only allows the integration of application based on SIP, H.323 and Access Grid. Loosely-coupling is also inherent to the Web servicesWS based solutions presented in the previous section. Similarly to those solutions, LEICA represents an integration environment that proposes a loosely-coupled approach based on Web servicesWS technologies. Regarding the performance implications of SOAP, Alonso et al. [31][32] suggest that Web ServicesWS technologies should be used only to implement coarse-gained interactions, where the impact of the overhead associated to SOAP would be less important. Following the recommendations of [31][32], Web servicesWS are employed by LEICA for coarse-grained operations only. As it will be detailed in the following sections, LEICA defines a hybrid architecture where Web ServicesWS are applied as an initial mechanism for registering newly integrated applications, as well as for setting and starting up collaborative sessions. Then, during the execution of integrated collaborative sessions a different infrastructure is used to interconnect collaborative applications. Another important aspect concerns integration semantics. Unlike the previous solutions, LEICA provides users with the possibility to define the desired integration semantics for each collaborative session. The Integration Environment: LEICA LEICA aims at the integration of different collaborative applications, where integration semantics is to be defined according to user requirements. Before explaining the general integration approach and the behavior of LEICA, a possible scenario is presented to better illustrate the advantages of such integration. Integration Scenario An important domain where collaborative environments have been largely used is e-Learning. In particular, a CVE (Collaborative Virtual Environment) can be used to implement a 3D shared world representing a school building divided into: one entrance hall, classrooms, and teachers rooms. Different collaborative applications could be associated to each room: (i) a chat room associated to the entrance hall; (ii) a collaborative web browsing (it would enable teachers to guide students through lecture notes) and an audio conference tool associated to the classrooms; and (iii) a shared whiteboard associated to each of the teachers room. Un paragraphe pour montrer la situation: Utilisation des outils non integrà ©es, et lintà ©gration avec LEICA. With this integration semantics, whenever an avatar enters into a room, the respective user is automatically connected to the associated collaborative application(s). Besides, only authorized users should enter into private rooms (e.g. the teachers rooms with its whiteboard could be restricted to teachers). Another possible behavior specified by this integration semantics is some kind of floor coupling between the two applications used as a support for virtual class sessions. This way, it would be possible to assure that the user holding the Web browsing floor (i.e. the one guiding the lecture notes browsing) is the only one to have the right to speak to the class attendees. General Integration Approach As previously mentioned, and illustrated in Fig. 1, LEICA follows a hybrid architecture where Web ServicesWS are applied at the collaborative sessions start up, and an event notification system allows collaborative applications to interact through the exchange of event notifications. Two other basic components of LEICA are the Wrappers and the Session Configuration Service (SCS). The integration of a collaborative application to LEICA is achieved by attaching a Wrapper to it. Three main cases may be considered: a) open source applications, b) API-based applications, and c) applications without any available API. Integration of open source applications can achieve the tightest interaction degree, since any internal event/action can be exported/performed; it might however imply great development efforts. API-based integration is straightforward, and interaction is limited to the provided API. Applications without API are the most limitating ones, constraining to interact only through application start and stop actions. LEICAs integration approach is mainly driven by case (b), believing that developers are certainly interested in creating specific and performable collaboration tools that can be used either stand-alone or integrated with other applications (through a flexible API, being able to get a great share of the market). This is for instance the case of Skypeâ„ ¢, a successful example of communication tool that has released its API since some time ago. Fig. 2 summarizes LEICAs general integration framework. The first step of the LEICAs integration framework is the Collaborative Application Integration. For instance, in the illustrative scenario presented in III.A, the first step to integrate the CVE with the instant messenger (supporting the chat room associated to the entrance hall), the collaborative Web browser and the audio conference applications, it is necessary to create a Wrapper for each one of these applications. As detailed in Section V, these wrappers can be automatically generated by LEICAs API Factory, based on the API description of each collaborative application. The Wrappers comprise a Web services Services WS interface allowing the collaborative application to register itself with LEICA. As illustrated by Fig. 1, through the Wrappers Web servicesWS ports, the integrated application can interact with the Session Configuration Service (SCS). The SCS is a Web service Service WS used for (i) configuring new global SuperSessions and (ii) starting up SuperSessions. A SuperSession is an integrated collaborative session holding the whole collaboration activity. Within the context of a global SuperSession, different specificSessions can exist. A specificSession is a conventional collaborative session defined within the context of a collaborative application (e.g. a videoconference session, a whiteboard session, etc.). The SCS dynamically contacts each integrated application, during the SuperSession configuration process, in order to request: (i) which specific data is required to create specificSessions for this respective application (e.g. a videoconference tool could require an IP multicast address); and (ii) which kind of events it can notify, and action requests it can handle. The interaction degree among the integrated applications depends essentially on the nature of the events they are able to exchange, and actions they are able to perform. In order to create a SuperSession, a user must define its integration semantics. It is accomplished by configuring the Collaboration Policy. A Collaboration Policy is a set of rules under a condition/action model. These rules define how collaborative applications must react when receiving information (events) notified by other integrated applications. In other words, the specification of Collaboration Policies allows defining specific integration semantics (i.e. how to coordinate integrated applications) to each SuperSession, according to the different users requirements. Once a SuperSessions has been created (and its associated configuration file is generated), it can finally be started up. The SCS firstly contacts each integrated collaborative application requesting them to create the specificSessions defined in the SuperSession. Then, during the execution of collaborative sessions the integrated application can interact through the exchange of event using the Event Notification System. According to predefined Collaboration Policies, these notifications may lead specific actions to be performed. Wrappers are in charge of managing the SuperSessions Collaboration Policy. When the Wrapper of a collaborative application receives event notifications, it verifies if the notified events enable any policy rule concerning this collaborative application. If so, the Wrapper sends action requests to the respective application. Note that LEICA is not intended to support low-level physical events (e.g. mouse click/scrolling) or high frequency synchronization events (e.g. current position of moving objects). It aims at supporting activity relevant events that carry some semantics. SuperSession Concept As previously mentioned, LEICA controls the whole collaboration activity within the context of a global SuperSession. A SuperSession model has been defined in order to precisely identify and describe its components. Based on this model, LEICA maintains concise and coherent SuperSession state information. Furthermore, a well-defined taxonomy of the components and their attributes are also implied from the model. General models for describing collaborative applications have already been proposed in the literature. Some of them [26][27] [32][33] represent a conceptual or ontological model describing the entities and relationships of individual CSCW systems. Few models aim at describing integrated CSCW systems, like OOActSM [33][34] and the conceptual model presented in [34][35]. However, these models are based on the notion of a general activity as the central abstraction, which was considered rather abstract for a detailed specification of the SuperSession. Nevertheless, these models have inspired several concepts adopted in the defined SuperSession model. The SuperSession represents a collaboration activity involving different integrated applications, a group of users and general roles associated to these users. Formally, a CIE Session CS is a tuple: SS = (SSid, CA , NA , Rl , U , SSat) where: SSid is a unique identifier; CA = {CAi } | i ÃŽ [1,I]} is a finite set of collaborative applications where CAi = (CAidi, spSi, CAati) a specific collaborative application running a set of specificSessions (sSi). CAati is a list of attributes characterizing the collaborative application. These attributes provide information about the application description, including name, type, whether it is a role-based application, its distribution architecture (client/server, multi-servers, peer-to-peer) and the type of user applications (stand-alone or webWeb-based).); NA is a finite set of non-collaborative applications (data converters, databases, web applications, etc.); Rl = {Rlk } | k ÃŽ [1,K]} is a finite set of general roles. The concept of general role refers to a group of users owning the same set of responsibilities and privileges inside LEICA; Rlk = (Rlidk , Rlatk). Rlidk is a unique role identifier; and Rlatk is a list of attributes characterizing this general role. This list provides details like roles description, membership and administration rights. Regarding the membership, it defines how the role is associated with users: it may be either (i) a static association (there is a membership list), (ii) an automatic association (there is a predicate function based on users parameters and SuperSession state) or (iii) a users choice (password protected or not).); U = {Ul } | l ÃŽ [1,L]} is a finite set of connected users; Ul = (Uidl, URlidl, Mbl, Uatl) represent a user, where Uidl is a unique identifier; URlidl is one general role associated with the user; Mbl is a finite set of membership relations; Uatl is a list of attributes (name, email, IP address, network connection, device type, etc.); Mbl.n = (mCAidl.n , mSidl.n , msRlidl.n) is a membership relation, where mCAidl.n is an application identifier; mSidl.n is a specificSession identifier; msRlidl.n is a finite set of specific roles identifiers. Thus, each membership relation indicates the participation of a connected user to a specificSession of a collaborative application (once connected to the SuperSession, a user can concurrently take part in none, one or more specificSessions of different collaborative applications); SSat is a list of attributes characterizing the SuperSession. These attributes describe information like session context (name, purpose, etc.), scheduling (if scheduled or not, duration, etc.), accessibility type (open or closed), role association type (how users are associated to a general role) and maximum number of connected users. A specificSession regards a conventional collaborative session of a collaborative application. The role of the specificSession entity (spSi.m), wich is formally represented by the tuple: spSi.m = (Sidi.m, sRli.m, pUidi.m, Rsi.m, spSati.m) is not to precisely describe each aspect of a collaborative task. Instead, it captures relevant elements like the specific roles defined for this session (sRli.m), the users participating to this session (pUidi.m.) and the shared resources accessed by these users (Rsi.m). A specific role is a tuple, sRli.m.o = (sRlidi.m.o, sRlati.m.o), where sRlidi.m.o is a specific role identifier and sRlati.m.o is a list of attributes characterizing the specific role (description and maximum number of simultaneous users). A resource is also a tuple Rsi.m.p= (urli.m.p, Rsati.m.p ), where urli.m.p is a resource locator and Rsati.m.p is a list of attributes characterizing the resource. The purpose of the resource element is simply to allow the implementation of an inter-application access control mechanism. LEICA will not need to keep the state of each resource. Thus, resources attributes just describe its type (file, device, virtual object, interface widget, etc.) and the read/write access type (exclusive or concurrent). SuperSession Configuration In order to create a SuperSession, a two step configuration process is carried out: (i) Session Management configuration and (ii) Collaboration Policy configuration. In the first configuration step, two groups of information should be specified: General Session Management information (GSMinfo): It carries management information such as scheduling, membership and general user roles.; Integrated Applications information (IAinfo): It defines the list of integrated applications to be used during this SuperSession; for each collaborative application, a list of specificSessions is defined, where specific data required by this application for creating sessions is provided (e.g. a videoconference application will be provided with an IP multicast address). Once Session Management configuration is completed, the Collaboration Polic