Internet Comedy (American) and Asian Stereotypes Essay

Internet Comedy (American) and Asian Stereotypes - Essay Example Many of these comedies impose their subjective vision of the Asian nationality and culture on the American viewer. In response, Asian actors develop their Internet shows to challenge and eliminate the existing stereotypes, turning comedy into a unique instrument of multicultural education. Unfortunately, the number of comedies challenging racial beliefs about Asians is too low to change public perceptions of the Asian culture. As a result, comedies may well serve to develop racial tolerance but can hardly cause a substantial change in the public representation of the Asian race. The number of comedies starring Asian actors constantly increases. Since the end of the 1990s, inviting Asian actors to work in American comedies has become commonplace. In 1998 and later in 2001, Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 comedies became a small sensation in American comedy, grossing millions of dollars (Park, Gabbadon & Chernin 157). The use of African American and Asian actors in the lead roles did not ali enate but, on the contrary, attracted White and non-White audiences (Park, Gabbadon & Chernin 157). However, it is at least incorrect to say that the presence of Asian actors in the lead roles in American comedies helps to resolve the existing racial tensions. Asian stereotypes in American comedy and American society continue to persist. ... Meanwhile, Asians Bart Kwan and Joe Jo are promoting their YouTube channel to push the boundaries of Asian stereotypes in the media, on television, and in the Internet (Steve). So, what is happening with the Asian stereotypes and prejudices in American comedy? Back to Rush (1998) and Rush 2 (2001), the Asian nationality is associated with the two terms, ‘sushi’ and ‘Triad’, throwing the viewer even deeper into their own cultural ignorance. Additionally, non-Asian actors in the movie suggest that all Chinese people look alike (Park, Gabbadon & Chernin 162). Again, a popular American comedy turns into the source of influence on the public opinions about Asians and, simultaneously, reflects the most important long-standing beliefs about Asians in the Western world. As a result, instead of helping American viewers to identify themselves with the multicultural world, Asian actors in comedies further reinforce the existing national prejudices. They promote the val ue of cultural ignorance and turn prejudice and bias into an essential ingredient of people’s daily lives. Prejudice against Asians is being normalized, and even the funniest comedies and YouTube channels created by Asian actors cannot withstand the pressure of normalized cultural bias. In comedies, Asian actors and characters tend to occupy a minority position, which further complicates the development of equality perceptions in the American nation. It is interesting to note, that characterization is one of the basic ways in which American comedies promote Asian stereotypes. Comedy is the genre which allows incorporating all types of characters and provides freedom for self-expression and judgment (Mintz

Imagine that you are participating in a professional conference, and Essay

Imagine that you are participating in a professional conference, and your role is to offer commentary on three papers that examine early modern Europe and make claims about religion and violence - Essay Example By the beginning of 16th century, the medieval church and all it represented ventured into a period comprised of profound crisis. At this time, the church was approximately fifteen centuries old. Most of the church history comprised of continuous confrontation of problems from within its organization and from without. However, by 1500, these problems rose to the surface and made the church shake at its very foundation. Political philosophers had rejected the idea presented by the claiming that popes were superior to kings. These disagreements acted as major contributors of religious wars and violence in early modern Europe (Whitford 345). According to theorists like Karl Marx, there was no need to reform the church since his secular theory based on the notion that religion and faith were nothing more than cement that held society together. Another way in which religious fanaticism led to insurgence of violence and religious wars in early modern Europe is by allowing local church bishops control all of the bankers, merchants, and artisan economic and commercial activities. When philosophers describe modern Europe, in this instance, they talk about France, Italy, England, Spain, Scandinavia, Germany, and the Low Countries. These business people from Europe’s largest cities conflicted with the local church bishops who controlled business activities, an idea that the former resented. Merchants, bankers, and artisans believed that they would have more money and power if only the church could cease controlling their money making and producing business (Greyez 187). Even capitalism had not yet infiltrated into Europe, it is evident that there was development of secular concept of acquisition and work. Additionally, fanaticism facilitated the endemic upsurge of religious violence and wars in that, in the 16th century, there were numerous reformers who criticized the church openly for its

Analysis of validity and reliability of intelligence assessments

Analysis of validity and reliability of intelligence assessments Measuring intelligence has always been a pragmatic thing to do (Wilhelm Engle, 2005). Most people find it hard to be rational in measuring their intelligence. As a common usage, intelligence is attested quantifiably by understanding the admissibility of a degree (Bartholomew, 2004) In other words, there can be no way that intelligence would be perfectly quantified. Only the nearness or the relative distance can be the mode of measuring ones intelligence. David Wechsler (Bartholomew, 2004) defines intelligence as the aggregate ability of an individual to have a rational thinking, a purposive act, and an effective dealing with his environment. Some writers however define intelligence negatively. That is, the doing away of tests. It is important to differentiate between intelligence quotient (IQ) and intelligence itself. IQ does not simply refer to the quantity of intelligence a person has, rather it refers to the relative standing of an individual with regard to his performance in an intelligence test as compared to others who took the same test (Zastrow Kirst-Ashman, 2007). When intelligence is measured in terms of a numerical result (i.e. I.Q. is 140), we cannot be sure that we are really talking about intelligence since there is a substitution of precision for vagueness (Govier, 2009). The original purpose of intelligence test was primarily to identify the least capable students that are finding it hard to learn from ordinary schooling (Kalat, 2010). However, it was later used to determine who among the students excel and during entrance examinations in universities. It is seemingly difficult if not impossible to devise a test that would truly measure the innate intelligence without being bias culturally. Innate ability cannot be measured if cultural bias exists (Young, 2006). Bias refers to the existence of nuisance factors that makes it difficult to compare the intelligence tests results across different cultural groups (Prifitera et al. 2008). There are three kinds of cultural biases in intelligence tests vis-a-viz construct bias, method bias, and differential item functioning (Lovler, Miller, McIntire, 2010). Construct bias occurs when there are different systems of meaning from culture to culture. For instance, a good daughter in a country might have a different characteristic in another country. Method bias occurs when the procedure of the test vary from different cultures such as when in a certain country, participants are used to input data electronically while in another country, participants are used to answering manually through paper s. Differential item functioning or item bias occurs when there is a great gap in the test scores of the participants in different cultures who have relatively the same abilities. For example, different regional groups might have different scores in a history test regarding their home country even if all of them are familiar with its history. In order to eliminate cultural biases in intelligence tests, culture-free tests became a demand. As the name imply this test attempt to eliminate cultural and educational differences (Haselbauer, 2006). The most common mediums used in this test are pictures or images which assess spatial capabilities of the participants such as visualization and perception. The validity of the tests is equally important as the reliability of the test. Validity is challenged when a participant in the test cannot communicate in the language used in the test (Rhodes, 2005). Critics of IQ tests argue that the differences in IQ scores are attributable to the orientation of the test makers such as their experiences, vocabulary and language, and lifestyles (Weiten, 2008). Construct-related validity refers to the extent which the test instrument can capture the details it is designed to measure (Sternberg, 2010). Methods To be able to determine the validity of intelligence tests particularly on the way it is constructed, this paper will investigate whether validity of tests vary between English speakers and non-English speakers. The kind of test that will be used is PSYGAT which focuses mainly on the verbal capability of the participant. This will be conducted after the participants have taken the Queendom test and Culture Fair IQ test. Participants will be composed of a total number of 337 from which 269 (79.8%) are females and 68 (20.2%) are males. The sex standard deviation for the participants with English-speaking backgrounds (ESB) will be 0.407 while those with non-English speaking background (NESB) will be 0.389. After getting the result of the test, it will be analyzed based on age. The age standard deviation for ESBs will be 7.514 while for NESBs it is 7.627. Ages range from 19-55 for ESBs and 19-62 for NESBs. Aim This study aims to determine if PSYGAT is internally reliable when a group of participants with English-speaking backgrounds and non-English speaking backgrounds are compared. An initial hypothesis for this study is that PSYGAT will be a reliable means of intelligence computation vis-a-viz significant convergent validity in the same way as the Queendom and Culture Fair IQ tests. However, between ESB and NESB, it is hypothesized that they will differ in terms of reliability and validity. Results Item Analysis Upon checking for internal consistency of data using Cronbachs alpha, it can be assessed that results were reliable, especially as most of the generated alpha were higher than 80 percent. The following are reliability statistics with their corresponding Cronbachs alpha  [1]  : Reliability of data for overall sample for all 55 questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .898 Reliability of data for overall sample for the 25 best discriminating questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .848 Reliability of the data for ESB group for the 25 best discriminating questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .851 Reliability of the ESB for all 55 questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .901 Reliability of the data for NESB group for the 25 best discriminating questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .841 Reliability of the NESB group for all 55 questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .889 Validity of PSYGAT In order to test the validity of PSYGAT, the correlation scores of the PSYGAT (total scores) on each of the Queendom tests were obtained using SPSS. Correlations (for all sample) Total Queendom Verbal Adjusted Total Pearson Correlation 1 .466** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 337 337 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation .466** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 337 337 Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation .098 -.283** Sig. (2-tailed) .073 .000 N 337 337 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Correlations for ESB Group Total Queendom Verbal Adjusted Total Pearson Correlation 1 .433** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 244 244 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation .433** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 244 244 Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation .067 -.341** Sig. (2-tailed) .295 .000 N 244 244 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Correlations for NESB group Total Queendom Verbal Adjusted Total Pearson Correlation 1 .567** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 93 93 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation .567** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 93 93 Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation .238* .011 Sig. (2-tailed) .022 .918 N 93 93 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Assessment of Differences between ESB and NESB groups in terms of reliability and validity By splitting the data according to its background (i.e., ESB and NESB group), the following correlations were obtained: Correlations English Queendom Culture Fair IQ english speakiing background Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation 1 Sig. (2-tailed) N 244 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation -.341** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 244 non english speaking background Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation 1 Sig. (2-tailed) N 93 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation .011 Sig. (2-tailed) .918 N 93 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). The observed z value will be obtained using the following formula: where: rESB= -0.341 NESB = 244 rNESB= 0.011 NNESB = 93 Transforming the correlation coefficient to their corresponding z values, zESB = -0.355 zNESB = 0.011 Using the values above, the following observed z value was obtained: Z = -2.96 To evaluate the observed z value, the obtained value must not be between -1.96 and +1.96 to conclude a statistical difference between the two correlation coefficients. From this, it can be assessed that there is a statistical difference between the 2 correlation coefficients, due to the fact that the observed z value does not fall between -1.96 and +1.96. Discussion and Conclusions Many researchers have argued that the measurement of intelligence through IQ tests is no doubt based on the culture to which the individual belongs to. In an attempt to assess the reliability and the construct validity of the PSYGAT a verbal assessment developed by Psychology students in 1998 344 Psychology students were tasked to complete three tests which comprises of two Queendom tests (verbal adjusted and culture fair test) and the PSYGAT. The results of the PSYGAT were then analysed for internal validity. Construst validity of PSYGAT was also examined by analyzing the test scores alongside the Queendom tests. The hypothesis that the PSYGAT test would show significant internal reliability and construct validity as it was analysed alongside the other two tests was supported. Significant correlations were also found in the results for Queendom Verbal Adjusted and the PSYGAT for English speaking background group. Upon computation of observed z values, it was also concluded that th ere were statistical differences between the ESB and NESB correlation coefficients. Thus, it can be further assessed that PSYGAT can be used validly for verbal intelligence assessments, although, further research is recommended for its use in culture fair factors. One limitation though of this study is the fact that participants were all university students, specifically Psychology students. Perhaps, there is a need for further research that will involve a much diverse population, considering that participants in this study can be considered as well-educated. Despite their non-English speaking background, it can also be assumed that perhaps are also well-versed in the English language. Another limitation is also the fact that the tests used the English language as the first language in the assessments. Such factor may pose limitations for specific ethnic groups whose first language is not English. It can be considered that future researches be conducted that will be more culture sensitive and be conducted using the first language of the specific ethnic group. References Bartholomew, D. J. (2004). Measuring intelligence: facts and fallacies: Cambridge University Press Govier, T. (2009). A practical study of argument (7th ed.): Cengage Learning. Haselbauer, N. (2006). The everything test your IQ book: discover your true intelligence: Everything Books. Kalat, J. W. (2010). Introduction to psychology (9th ed.): Cengage Learning. Lovler, R. L., Miller, L. A., McIntire, S. A. (2010). Foundations of psychological testing: a practical approach (3rd ed.): SAGE. Prifitera, A., Saklofske, D. H., Weiss, L. G. (2008). WISC-IV clinical assessment and intervention: practical resources for the mental health professional (2nd ed.): Elsevier. Rhodes, R. L., Ochoa, S. H. Ortiz, S. O. (2005). Assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students: a practical guide: Guilford Press. Weiten, W. (2008). Psychology: Themes and variations (8th ed.): Cengage Learning. Wilhelm, O. Engle, R. W. (2005). Handbook of understanding and measuring intelligence: SAGE. Young, E. M. (2010). Dealing with the cultural bias in intelligence testing: culture free and culture fair iq tests. Retrieved 29 April 2011 from: . Zastrow, C Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2007). Understanding human behavior and the social environment (7th ed.): Cengage Learning.

Internet Users Should Practice Self Restraint :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

Internet Users Should Practice Self Restraint The generation of the 90s, the information generation, or better yet the generation-X, has been plunged into a world of computers. To survive, each individual must have knowledge of and feel comfortable with the computer; a scary word and a frightful system to those not acquainted with it. The Internet is the essential application that needs to be grasped. It is the information network of the future. However, the variety of people using it is as vast as the world around. Hence, this is a community that is truly the world's largest melting pot, bringing people together from all ends of the world. The Internet becomes a social structure and with any social structure, it has its problems. Today, one of the rising problems with the Internet is that most people have their entire lives on the system; hence they are potentially exposed to all types of criminals. All addresses, phone numbers, credit histories, and sometimes even photographs can be found through the net. As in the real world, even in the Internet, women seem to be in a vulnerable position because they are the least protected by stalkers, kidnappers, murderers and psychopaths in general. A point, in fact clearly demonstrated in the movie "The Net", starring Sandra Bullock who was chased down by the government through the Internet. Although, many times the individual can remain anonymous and separate from all biases and prejudices, they still have all their information stored for it to be pried into by any clever hacker. Another vulnerable group constitutes children; lawmakers and concerned citizens worry about them being exposed to "adult material" on the Internet. At times it is as if their first priority becomes protecting these children from pornography, offensive material and often times just extreme view points. A downside to focusing so much attention on pornography is that often people are just fueling the curiosity of those they are aiming to protect. Although regulating the Internet for children is beneficial, often the regulations also encompass college students, who need a free hand to travel through this medium. This protection from "adult material" often restricts the learning process and prevents them from fully experiencing the Internet. Recently, lawmakers have attempted to set guidelines for the Internet. This poses a problem in itself because the Internet is a worldwide system. The rules that are placed must be agreed upon across the globe. Internet Users Should Practice Self Restraint :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays Internet Users Should Practice Self Restraint The generation of the 90s, the information generation, or better yet the generation-X, has been plunged into a world of computers. To survive, each individual must have knowledge of and feel comfortable with the computer; a scary word and a frightful system to those not acquainted with it. The Internet is the essential application that needs to be grasped. It is the information network of the future. However, the variety of people using it is as vast as the world around. Hence, this is a community that is truly the world's largest melting pot, bringing people together from all ends of the world. The Internet becomes a social structure and with any social structure, it has its problems. Today, one of the rising problems with the Internet is that most people have their entire lives on the system; hence they are potentially exposed to all types of criminals. All addresses, phone numbers, credit histories, and sometimes even photographs can be found through the net. As in the real world, even in the Internet, women seem to be in a vulnerable position because they are the least protected by stalkers, kidnappers, murderers and psychopaths in general. A point, in fact clearly demonstrated in the movie "The Net", starring Sandra Bullock who was chased down by the government through the Internet. Although, many times the individual can remain anonymous and separate from all biases and prejudices, they still have all their information stored for it to be pried into by any clever hacker. Another vulnerable group constitutes children; lawmakers and concerned citizens worry about them being exposed to "adult material" on the Internet. At times it is as if their first priority becomes protecting these children from pornography, offensive material and often times just extreme view points. A downside to focusing so much attention on pornography is that often people are just fueling the curiosity of those they are aiming to protect. Although regulating the Internet for children is beneficial, often the regulations also encompass college students, who need a free hand to travel through this medium. This protection from "adult material" often restricts the learning process and prevents them from fully experiencing the Internet. Recently, lawmakers have attempted to set guidelines for the Internet. This poses a problem in itself because the Internet is a worldwide system. The rules that are placed must be agreed upon across the globe.

Business Information Systems Essay

1. What is a decision? When does a person have to make a decision? A decision is a conclusion or resolution reached after a thought out consideration of variables in a problem. When more than one possible action is involved in solving a problem, a decision must be made. 2. Calculating a complex trajectory of a spaceship to Mars is a structured problem, whereas diagnosing the cause of a rash on a person’s skin is often unstructured. How so? A structured problem is one in which an optimal solution can be reached through a single set of steps. Since the one set of steps is known, and since the steps must be followed in a known sequence, solving a structured problem with the same data always yields the same solution. This sequence of steps is known as an algorithm. An unstructured problem is one for which there is no algorithm to follow to reach an optimal solution— either because there is not enough information about the factors that might affect the solution or because th ere are so many potential factors that no algorithm can be formulated to guarantee a unique optimal solution. Unstructuredness is closely related to uncertainty. 3. DSSs use models to process data. Explain what a model is. Give an example that is not mentioned in the chapter. A sequence of events or a pattern of behavior might become a useful model when the relationships among its inputs, outputs, and conditions can be established well enough that they can be used to analyze different parameters. Models are used to predict output on the basis of different input or different conditions or to estimate what combination of conditions and input might lead to a desired output. Models are often based on mathematical research or on experience. A model might be a widely used method to predict performance, such as best- fit linear analysis, or it might be built by the organization, using the experience that employees in the firm have accumulated over time. 4. Many DSSs are not stand- alone anymore, but are embedded in other ISs. What are those ISs? Many DSSs are now closely intertwined with other organizational systems, including data warehouses, data marts, and ERP systems, from which they draw relevant data. 5. What is a sensitivity test? A sensitivity analysis is conducted to test the degree to which the total profit grows or shrinks if one or more of the factors is increased or decreased. It is often referred to as what- if analysis. 6. The airline and hospitality industries use DSSs for yield management. What is yield management, and what is the output of a yield management DSS? The purpose of yield management DSSs is to find the proper pricing to maximize the overall revenue from selling seats for each flight. The result is often price discrimination. 7. What is the purpose of an expert system? How can it serve as a competitive tool? The purpose of ESs is to replicate the unstructured and undocumented knowledge of the few (the experts), and put it at the disposal of the many other people who need the knowledge, often novices or professionals in the same domain but with far less expertise. It can serve as a competitive tool by the using of a knowledge base, which is a collection of facts and the relationships among them. An ES does not use a model module but an inference engine. The inference engine is software that combines data that is input by the user with the data relationships stored in the knowledge base. The result is a diagnosis or suggestion for the best course of action. In most ESs, the knowledge base is built as a series of IF- THEN rules. 8. Explain how expert systems can distribute expertise. By coupling quantitative data from a database with decision models. An expert system (ES) is developed to emulate the knowledge of an expert to solve problems and make decisions in a relatively narrow domain. 9. How could an ES be used to detect probable fraud committed by a bank employee? Business applications have increasingly combined neural nets and ES technologies in software that monitors business processes and supply chain management. Neural nets have been very effective in detecting fraud of many types. 10. What is the advantage of combining ES and neural net technologies? ES researchers continue to look for ways to better capture knowledge and represent it. They test the results of such efforts in highly unstructured problem- solving domains. Rather than containing a set of IF- THEN rules, more sophisticated ESs use neural networks (neural nets), programs that are designed to mimic the way a human brain learns. An ES is constructed with a set of rules, but as data on real successes and failures of decisions is accumulated and fed into the system, the neural network refines the rules to accomplish a higher success rate. 11. What is a GIS? What purpose does it serve? GISs process location data and provide output. For instance, a GIS could be used to help a housing developer determine where to invest by tracking and displaying population changes on a map, highlighting in color increases of more than 10 percent over the past three years. 12. Name the three major elements that are combined to make up a GIS. A typical GIS consists of (1) a database of quantitative and qualitative data from which information is extracted for display, (2) a database of maps, and (3) a program that displays the information on the maps. Chapter 11 1. What is business intelligence? Business intelligence (BI) mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes. 2. What is OLAP, and why is it often associated with visual cubes? OLAP is an approach to swiftly answer multi-dimensional analytical (MDA) queries. It is another type of application used to exploit data warehouses. Although OLAP might not be as sophisticated in terms of the analysis conducted, it has extremely fast response time and enables executives to make timely decisions. Each side of the cube provides another two dimensions of relevant information. 3. What is the advantage of using a dimensional database rather than on- the- fly processing in OLAP? Tables, even if joining data from several sources, limit the review of information. Often, executives need to view information in multiple combinations of two dimensions. 4. Why is online analytical processing usually conducted on warehoused data or dimensional databases rather than on data in transactional databases? To speed up response and summarize that data and organize the information in dimensional databases for OLAP. 5. What is â€Å" drilling down†? A process by which one starts with a table that shows broad information and successively retrieves tables of more specific information. Chapter 12 1. Why is IT planning so important? *  Creating a corporate and IT mission statement.    * Articulating the vision for IT within the organization.    * Creating IT strategic and tactical plans.    * Creating a plan for operations to achieve the mission and vision.  * Creating a budget to ensure that resources are available to achieve the mission and vision 2. As part of their IT planning, many organizations decide to standardize. What does standardization mean in this context, and what are its potential benefits? One major goal— and advantage— of planning is standardization. When management decides to adopt a certain IT resource for all its units, regardless of function or location, it standardizes its IT. Benefits would be: * Cost saving * Efficient training * Efficient support 3. Why is traditional systems development referred to as a â€Å" cycle†? What determines the cycle’s end? Because it consists of several distinct phases that are followed methodically, and the developers complete the phases sequentially. The SDLC approach assumes that the life of an IS starts with a need, followed by an assessment of the functions that a system must have to fulfill that need, and ends when the benefits of the system no longer outweigh its maintenance costs, or when the net benefit of a new system would exceed the net benefits of the current system. 4. Systems developers often use the term â€Å" application development† rather than â€Å" systems development.† Why? It involves fast development of an application based on initial user requirements and several cycles of user input and developer improvements. 5. What are the benefits of using data flow diagrams? Who benefits from DFDs? The use of only four symbols and the simplicity of DFDs are their great advantage. Those who benefit are external entities include individuals and groups of people who are external to the system, such as customers, employees, other departments in the organization, or other organizations. 6. SDLC is usually recommended for developing an IS that will be interfaced to other ISs. Give two examples of an IS that is interfaced with at least two other ISs. The better known methods are Extreme Programming (XP), Adaptive Software Development (ASD), Lean Development (LD), Rational Unified Process (RUP), Feature Driven Development (FDD), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Scrum, and Crystal. 7. Recall the discussion of IT professionals in Chapter 1, â€Å" Business Information Systems: An Overview†. Of the following professionals, who does the majority of the systems construction job: the CIO, systems analyst, database administrator (DBA), or programmer? Why? Systems analyst, because it takes a specialist to analyze and determine the type of program made to improve the system. 8. What are the advantages of agile methods over waterfall development methods, such as the traditional SDLC? What are the risks? The differences among the methods are outside the scope of this discussion. However, the major advantage of all agile methods is that they result in fast development of applications so that users can have them within weeks rather than months or years. Users do not have to wait long for system modifications, whether they are required because of programmer errors or because users have second thoughts about some features. However, the benefits of agile methods do not come without risks. First, the analysis phase is minimal or is sometimes eliminated completely. Reducing or skipping a thorough formal analysis increases the risk of incompatibilities and other unforeseen mishaps. Also, the develop-ers devote most of their time to construction and little time to documentation, so modification at a later date can be extremely time consuming, if not impossible. Because of the inherent risks, there are times when agile methods are appropriate and others when they are not. 9. Why are agile methods so helpful when users cannot define system requirements? Agile methods encourage users’ involvement throughout the process and encourage developers to change requirements in response to user input if needed. The purpose of agile methods is not to conform to a static contract with the users but to ensure that the users receive an application with which they are happy. Critics of agile programming in general and XP in particular argue that the relaxed approach to planning as well as ceding decision making and accountability to clients (users) might result in disasters, especially if such methods are applied to large, complex projects. 10. An increasing number of IS professionals prefer to call the end users of their creations â€Å" customers,† even if the developers and users are employees of the same organization. Why? The customers of software development, the users, are not an adverse party and should not be negotiated with but regarded as codevelopers and co- owners of the software. 11. What is systems integration? The process of linking together different computing systems and software applications physically or functionally, to act as a coordinated whole. 12. Why is systems integration more complicated when the systems involve the Web than when they do not? Systems integration is often much more complicated than systems development, because it requires the IT professionals to make different applications communicate with each other seamlessly. The complexity is multiplied when integrating ISs of several organizations that must work together over the Web. 13. The emergence of the Web as a vehicle for business increased the need for systems integration. How so? The web allows for remote access and because more legacy databases are integrated into new enterprise applications it makes for a smooth transition of data traffic.

Relative ethics Essay

Relative ethics is where decisions are made with the circumstances in mind. For instance the culture and traditions of the place, the individuals, and society. Examples of relative ethics is utilitarianism and situation ethics. Relative ethics can be seen to be a fair approach to decision making because it is tolerant of different values, it is more realistic that nothing is right or wrong, it is more open to atheists, and is considers emotions as important. However it is more complex and makes decisions harder, it can be used as an excuse to act in an immoral way, it implies that we should not have laws and it does not protect worldwide human rights. Relative ethics is tolerant of different cultures. For example just because in one place it is considered wrong for women to have an education in one country e.g. Islamic countries, it doesn’t mean that in the UK women should not have an education. The UK is not morally superior and should not try to implement its own morals on any other country. This may seem fair in one way but it actually means that any act can be acceptable and doesn’t protect our human rights, sexism is wrong and women should never be discriminated against no matter their religion. Some laws need to be absolute. Someone in a different country may claim that for example kidnap and torture are part of their culture, but we know this is wrong. Relative ethics can be seen as fair because in it there are no absolute objective rights or wrongs. The right thing to do depends on the situation. For example, if a woman stole food out of greed then it would be wrong. However if she stole food to feed her starving children then this is right. It is fairer than absolute ethics because an absolutist would say that the woman shouldn’t steal even if he children are dying of starvation. Obviously, this is wrong and so the relativist view if a fairer approach to decision making The idea that there are no objective rights or wrongs can make relative decision making a slow process. In Utilitarianism, the consequences of each option have to be predicted and consequences. When each individual situation has to be considered, it can cause complications and ensuring every person gets a good result is difficult. Some may argue that the time it takes to make a decision about the morality of an act is causes those involved more suffering and is unjust. In conclusion I think that relative ethics is the best approach to making fair ethical decisions. However, I believe that some actions are wrong no matter the culture or time or individual. For example, discrimination is always wrong and torture of innocents and kidnapping is wrong. Despite this, relative ethics is tolerant of all cultures and does not believe that in any situations that one persons or country’s morals are superior to anothers.