3D Printing in the world Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

3D Printing in the world - Research Paper Example This technique is a modern technique which differs in many ways from the machine techniques that were traditionally used. The traditional methods relied on the methods involving removal of materials such as cutting. This is why they were known as subtractive processes whereas 3D printing is known as additive process. The 3D printing uses the digital technology and these printers were initially manufactured by China. These printers came in the late 1980’s and ever since then they have been increasingly used all over the world. In the beginning of the 21st century, as the digital technology became more popular and advanced, the growth in the sales of the 3D printers was greatly observed. The sales of these printers increased in various parts of the world where they were used for new and innovative purposes. Gradually, as the sales and the demand grew, the costs of these printers fell immensely since they were first manufactured. Some of the purposes for which these machines were used were in industrial uses, architecture, jewelry, aerospace, engineering, medical, education, information systems and many others (Griffith, 2012). 3D printing is the technology to create materials and objects using a sequential layers technique. The materials which are produced by using the layering process can be anywhere in the product life cycle. However, the subtractive methods of manufacturing objects can be used as traditional methods in manufacturing. 3D printing was invented by Charles W. Hull (Chuck). In the mid 1980’s when it was invented, it used a stereolithography technique. This technique used a UV laser which was shined in the vat of an ultraviolet-sensitive photopolymer, and then it traced the object so that it was created on the surface. The polymer would solidify wherever it was touched by the beam, and that beam would print the particular object layer by layer as per the instructions fed in the CAD/CAM file through which it is working. CAD file is comp uter-aided design and CAM is computer-aided manufacturing. Chuck also founded a company which was called 3D Systems. The company made stereolithography machines which expensive machines of over $100,000 used in commercial techniques. 3D Systems is still operating today and now it sells the 3D printers of advanced technology. There is a variety of printers that are manufactured using different advanced technologies ranging from entry-level kits to the advanced commercial systems. The company also provides on-demand services manufacturing parts for business users. Many businesses and industries use the 3D printers and they need the machines to be up to date and maintained. There are many benefits of 3D printing which is why it is immensely used in the world today. Many designers use the 3D printing techniques to rapidly design the concepts and turn them into 3D models or rapid prototyping. It also allows for the rapid design changes which enables the designers to carry out their work rapidly and smoothly using the up to date technologies. The manufacturers are also allowed to produce the products rapidly on demand rather than on large run, which also increases the management of the sufficient amount of inventory and reduces the warehouse space. 3D printing techniques can help the people living in remote locations to fabricate the objects that would be inaccessible to them otherwise. 3D printing must be a onetime cost because once the designers and businesses have bought the machinery for 3D printing; they can save a lot of material and money which is used in subtractive techniques of manufacturing. The material in this technique is drilled, cut and shaved off; hence raw material can be wasted. 3D printing is

Systems Approach Essay Example for Free

Systems Approach Essay In the 1956 edition of Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist, A. D. Hall and R. E. Fagen define â€Å"a system as a set of objects together with relations between the objects and between their attributes†. (Scholtes, Peter R. 1998, 42)   The system concept has been taken from the exact sciences, specifically from physics, where exact laws lead to exact measurements. Though, the methods of the exact sciences are of little or no use for the social sciences, since these often deal with more composite and multidimensional systems.   A system is a whole that contains two or more parts that satisfy the following five conditions. The whole has one or more defining functions. Each part in the set can affect the behavior or properties of the whole. There is a subset of parts that is sufficient in one or more environments for carrying out the defining function of the whole; each of these parts is separately necessary but insufficient for carrying out this defining function. The way that the behavior or properties of each part of a system affects its behavior or properties depends on the behavior or properties of at least one other part of the system. The effect of any subset of parts on the system as a whole depends on the behavior of at least one other subset. Ackoff (1994)   In systems theory, organizations are viewed as open or socio-technical systems which trade with their environment. They import information, material, and energies, do something with or to them, and export them to an added system. The benefit of the systems approach is that it reveals organizations as social institutions which in some way or other beat the second law of thermodynamics, by which the amount of entropy (or disorganization) in the system is said to tend to exploit. Organizations achieve effectiveness by reducing entropy or disorganization. While information is received, uncertainty is reduced. Information can be considered by the amount of surprise it induces in the receiver, and organizations assist to bring the degree of surprise under control. Systems principles are based in part on the following concepts: The whole is more than the sum of its parts. A related principle is synergy, or the effectiveness of joint action. Organizations are goal seeking. The cybernetic ideas of feedback and balance affect system operation. Systems are arranged hierarchically. A system can attain the same state from a variety of beginning states—the principle of equifinality: ‘‘there’s more than one way to skin a cat.’’ Certo, S.C. (1998) In systems theory, organizations are seen as systems of information flows as sets of black (unknown-content) boxes linked by a series of inputs, transformations, and outputs. Information is the organizational currency, and it has to be searched for, bought, processed, and sold to some other system. The modern executive is a serial processor of information who needs to bring sensory data concerning the environment down to an optimal level where it can be handled. While the executive suffers overload or is placed in an environment of sensory deficit, bizarre behavior may result.   The most remarkable success of systems organization was the Apollo Project to put a man on the moon. This effort utilized project management, defined as ‘‘doing what we say we are going to do.’’ The conventional loyalties of the NASA people and the technicians from the aerospace firms broke down as the task became the focal point of their lives. The systems approach has spread to other industries, assisted by the widespread use of computers, which make information a key to raw material. (DeGuess, A. 1997)   The systems approach focuses instead on organization systems. It asserts that if employees can develop these systems, most work-related employee problems will disappear without individual counseling.   In addition to conceptual weaknesses, there are also staid process related weaknesses in quality improvement processes (QIP) s that stress the training phase and overlook others, especially the vehicle emplacement phase. For one thing, such efforts are typically top-down. Professional trainers, following the lead of those who organized the adaptation phase, begin by training upper and middle-level managers, who, in turn, are supposed to train lower-level managers as well as hourly workers with the support of the professionals. But there is a decisive difference between the familiarization phase and the training phase. While the up-front portion of the former can be offered to large audiences and completed in numerous weeks, the latter, when dealing with a company of any size, ultimately involves running several thousand students through efficient two- to three-day sessions. Such an effort is particularly drawn out so that by the time that everyone is trained, many of the earlier students have lost their enthusiasm, their workshop notebooks, or both.   At the same time, such training is rarely if ever sufficient Learning a technique in the classroom, even practicing it there, never gives students all the answers or prepares them fully for the real-life situation. A remarkable amount of support, therefore, is necessary when those primarily trained begin passing down their new knowledge and skills to lower-level managers and hourly workers. Such support, however, is rarely accessible. The corporate quality staff and consultants can visit just so many work sites during the year and can answer just so many phone calls (Depree, M. 1997).   Basically, systems approach is a theoretical tool used to organize and marshal resources (technologies, material, and workers) to get work done with optimal efficiency and to achieve a master purpose that meets precise standards.   The systems approach is often identified with efficiency. Because the systems approach is as much apprehensive with effectiveness as it is with efficiency, this is a mistake. Either efficiency or effectiveness can be pursued to the harm of the other in an intensely competitive market. However, efficiency gets special attention because of a prevailing doubt most things are not being done as well as they could be, and are, in fact, being mismanaged. If there was a will, it is believed, there would be a means to reduce costs. This belief is held especially for tax-supported public services. Though it may be true that one or another action could be run more efficiently, that is not the point. The point is whether the larger system, of which the activity is a part, can be run more competently and still deliver the product or service intended. And that is an issue of optimization.   A systems approach helps managers to channel vision, gives way, provides a basis for organizing resources and measuring performance, and it assists to allocate work so the purpose can be attained according to specified standards within a set time frame. In short, it unifies and focuses effort. We now continue to a discussion of the limitations of the systems approach.   The systems approach is necessary for effective decision making, for the utilization of models in outer factor, and for the application of computer technology. Systems analysis is a managerial get through, somewhat akin to breakthroughs in various sciences, and has given rise to influential concepts and tools of analysis.   The systems approach is based on the work of Von Bertalanffy, who is accredited with coining the phrase general systems theory. (Pearson, C.S. 1998) He conceived of a set of objects, their interrelationships, and their characteristics as systems. The objects were merely components of a system. Therefore, any groups of exterior activities and elements that can be delineated physically or abstractly constitute a system.   Moreover, it also assists in marketing systems that are collections of entities that form coherent groups. Channels of distribution that manage the activities of wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers, or physical distribution activities resulting from the integration of warehousing, storage, transportation, handling, and inventory activities, are examples of marketing systems. The actuality that entities or activities are capable of being understood as a rational group, rather than as a collection of parts, makes them a system. This conceptual insight has led to the development of new disciplines such as industrial dynamics and systems engineering.   In marketing, the systems approach turns on the inner theme that marketing reality occurs in systems. A business, part of it, or its connection with others, can be signified by some suitable system that may culminate in a physical facsimile, chart, flow diagram, and series of equations, replication model, or just a concept.   The survival and growth of systems is mainly determined by the efficiency of flows and communications. External factors of systems contain flows of products, services, finances, and equipment through channels and communications to and from marketplace. Two units of action of a marketing system have been illustrates as transaction and transvection. Transaction focuses on negotiations and exchange. Transvection represents a unit of action of the complete marketing system, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers the matching of original producers with ultimate consumers (Denhardt, R.B., 2000).   The systems approach employs one type of model a systems model. This model recognizes a total marketing system that should be supported and reinforced so that the company can survive, adjust, change, and function professionally. While stressing coordination, it also distinguishes conflict and competition among units, the necessity for subsystem concessions, and the fact that resources should be used to maintain the system itself as well as to attain goals. Managers have the major accountability of recognizing the relations among the elements of the systems. They must understand their potential combinations, and organize and integrate business factors so that goals are achieved effectively (Joseph OConnor, Ian McDermott 1997). Significantly the adoption of a systems perspective depends on the individual manager and his discernment of the factors of variability in the system, the relations of inputs, and the predictions of outputs resulting from the inputs.   The improvement of cohesive groups, however, does not mean that all conflicts are eradicated or that the objectives of all mechanism of the system coincide. For example, although manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers compose a system, their objectives. May conflict in part. However, it is the extent to which objectives are common that lends cohesiveness to systems components. This cohesiveness is more enthusiastically achieved among different functions within a firm than among firms. As firms become conglomerates of companies, this peculiarity tends to disappear. Although the systems-perspective direction tends to prevent sub optimization, it does not preclude the analysis of subsystems. Since management cannot investigate everything at the same time, it must digest smaller pieces.   Three basic types of equilibrating systems have been described, the atomistic, the organic whole, and the in-between limply coupled systems. In the atomistic system there is a tendency toward equilibrium amongst separate elements. The organic whole is a system with structured components joined together in a completely determined and inflexible pattern. They adapt to the environment by changing objectives, technologies, manpower, and organizational arrangements.   Systems theory facilitates the conceptual uncoupling and comprehensive analysis of components of a whole system as well as the investigation of the behavior of the total system based on an analysis of pertinent variables.   Moreover, Modern person-job match technology involves a diversity of disciplines to bring together the right kinds of information for personnel assignment decisions. A systems approach is desired to integrate the assignment process within the organization. The traditional static job assignment problem does not exist in practice. Within organizations there is the requirement for dynamic systems that respond quickly to changing personnel demands, supplies, costs, and objectives (Denhardt, R.B., 2000).   The modules of a personnel management system: projection of personnel requirements; forecasting the supply of candidates; planning, including the establishment of selection standards; making individual selection and job assignment decisions; and evaluating organization performance and alternative policies and procedures. The objective remains the same as in the original problem: to compare candidates against job requirements so that the best decisions can be made. The systems approach extends this process to include not only this decision but the determination of requirements and supply and execution and evaluation of the decision. While not all aspects of the system are equally important for all organizations, they are usually present and should be considered by the developer and implementer of person-job matching systems.   Determination of requirements is the essential first step in personnel planning. Personnel requirements are specified in terms of the numbers and types of positions that are associated with plans for the organizations size and structure. These in turn are based, at least in principle, on projections of the requirements/demand for the organizations output of products or services (M. A. Hersh., 1998).   For organizations in both the public and private sectors, these projections are made with considerable complexity and uncertainty, since they must be embedded in assumptions relating to the environment in which the organization will function. However, in spite of the difficulty and uncertainty, these projections serve a key function in providing the basis for the person-job matching method.   Moreover, a systems approach also helps managers to manufacturing suggests a systems approach to compensation that is, compensation practices that support the smooth and continuous operation of the system. This possibly means reducing distinctions between manual and white-collar workers, in particular elevating manual workers to salaried status. Incentive systems, if they are essential, should be indirect and broadly based, covering at least the work group and perhaps the entire operation. Some type of gain sharing emphasizing up-time objectives seems most suitable.   Thus, systems approach proposed the concept of semi-autonomous work groups based on the underlying assumption that learning and the development of social and occupational competences largely occur in cooperation and communication with others. In addition, industrial production does not provide itself well to the improved design of individual jobs, since most tasks are highly interdependent. The group thus is often the natural work unit. Optimal functioning of open, incessantly changing systems is seen as predicated on the extent to which the resources and competences for controlling the work of different organizational units are returned to the members of that unit. The principle of motivation through task orientation rather than external control is improved in relatively independent organizational units that permit increased scope for self regulation of work groups. Acknowledging that individuals are guided by varying goals and motivations, work has to be organized in a way that allows different individuals to satisfy varying needs and to develop new goals and aspirations. And rather than enriching jobs in consultation with external experts, employees themselves are to plan and regulate their work activities by means of direct contribution based on the principle of self-design.   This conceptualization of human nature and work leads to forms of work organization aimed at the development of competences by giving work groups the scope and latitude to complete tasks based on their own planning and guided simply by specified deadlines and standards. There is no longer a one best way for doing things; rather there is discretion and decision latitude rooted in the identification that different paths might equally well achieve the same goals. The symbol is that of an organism where different organs fulfill different functions but are reliant on each other, and can function appropriately only in relations with all other parts of the organism. Work Cited Ackoff, R.L. 1994. The Democratic Organization. New York: Oxford University Press. Certo, S.C. (1998). Modern management: Diversity, quality, ethics, and the global environment. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. DeGuess, A. (1997). The living company: Habits for survival in a turbulent business environment. Boston: Harvard Business School. Denhardt, R.B. Theories of Public Organization, 3rd Ed.; Harcourt College Publishers: Orlando, 2000; 16-17, 182-191. Depree, M. (1997, April). Attributes of leaders. Executive Excellence, 14 (4,) 8-10. Gharajedaghi, Jamshid. 1999. Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity. Woburn, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann Publishers. Joseph OConnor, Ian McDermott (1997) The Art of Systems Thinking: Revolutionary Techniques to Transform Your Business and Your Life HarperCollins. M. A. Hersh. A systems approach to understanding the causes of instability in nations: a case study, Bucharest, Romania, 1998. Pearson, C.S. (1998). Thinking about business differently: Organizational systems and leadership archetypes. Alisa Viejo: InnoVision. Scholtes, Peter R. 1998. The Leader’s Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Britney Spears’ Promotes Potentially Abusive Relationships in Her Song,

Britney Spears’ Promotes Potentially Abusive Relationships in Her Song, Baby, One More Time In her Top 10 hit ". . . Baby, One More Time," Britney Spears posits the song’s persona as a passive naà ¯f. Continual references to blindness and hitting metamorphose the song from a teen-targeted summer pop tune into ideology enslaving young women into dangerous, constrictive views of relationships--and themselves. Using feminist and Lacanian theory allows us to see the speaker’s entrance into the Symbolic and the problems thereof. The speaker rues over a terminated "love" affair. She (although arguable, this critic finds the speaker’s notion of and adherence to gender roles distinctly "female") supplicates for a "sign" of his (again, heterosexuality is an assumption made for the sake of discussion) persevering proclivity. This sign is to come in the form of a "hit." References to the speaker’s death ("killing me") are frequent, as are other indications of mistreatment. The speaker begins addressing "baby," her lover. She claims ignorance of the troubled relationship, thus displaying her quiescent predisposition: "how was I supposed to know / that somethin’ wasn’t right here." Because of her passivity, she appears as an innocent victim. The poor, helpless speaker is not to be blamed for anything. One might picture a little girl shrugging her shoulders and asking, "what could I do?" when caught eating a whole cake. This denial of responsibility is commonly seen on The Jerry Springer Show when someone maintains, "I didn’t mean to have an affair. It just happened." Placing the locus of control outside oneself causes one to naturally become a victim. Yet the speaker seems apprehensive in her inveterate paralyzed role. She pro... ...song might create? By attempting to erase the "hit me," someone tried to cover up the overtones of violence. Yet simply changing the title cannot efface the masochism and vapidity of the song’s speaker. The speaker’s complete yield of self to a potentially abusive lover is deleterious for teens still forming an identity, especially those seeking guidance and advice about sexual relationships. The effects of Spears’ song remain to be seen; yet this critic feels that the message sent is a harrowing one. The speaker’s recognition of self-worth cannot eventuate too quickly. Works Cited Haywood, Susan. Key Concepts in Cinema Studies. Routledge: London, 1996. Spears, Britney. ". . . Baby, One More Time." . . .Baby, One More Time. Audio CD. BMG: 1999. Works Consulted Lacan, Jacques. Ecrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. Tavistock: London, 1977.

How is violence presented in Lord of the Flies? Essay

Binary oppositions: Civilisation vs savagery (breakdowns). Zoomorphism Binary oppositions: Dictatorship vs democracy (juxtapositions) Deaths of Simon and Piggy – animalistic, savage chanting, violent behaviour when they let their temptations get the better of them. Simon and the beast? Conclusion – end of the novel William Golding explores the theme of violence throughout his novel ‘Lord of the Flies’. He believed that every individual has the potential to bring out their inner evil, and that every human being is flawed in their nature. Hence, he wrote a novel with an aim to employ characterisation of mankind’s essential sickness, after his time spent in war. He also aimed to challenge Ballantyne’s ‘Coral Island’. ‘Lord of the Flies’ presents the helpless and violent breakdown – along with devolution, of civilisation on the island by using authoritative symbolism, metaphorical imagery and biblical references to reinforce this loss of humanity in this corrupt regime. In the exposition of the novel, we are familiarised with the setting of the island – which begins as a utopia for the boys, with â€Å"the shimmering water†. This has paradisiacal connotations, showing the island to be an obvious place of beauty, along with the â€Å"lagoon† and â€Å"young palm trees†, which again is an idyllic characteristic for a place of bliss. However, this contrasts with the dark traits of the island also being depicted – which start becoming prominent and sets the theme of violence in Golding’s novel. The plane crash on the island is described as a â€Å"scar†, implying that the mark left has permanently damaged the island, which was once untouched and flawless. The use of this intimidating and daunting word ‘scar’ shows the ruin and damage of the situation in which the plane has come from, thus portraying violent features. Furthermore, this reveals the background information to the plot – the boys are evacuees from the war who have landed  on this island due to a plane crash; which connotes violence already. Another example of violence on the island is expressed through Golding’s description of features generally associated with islands – â€Å"skull-like† and â€Å"decaying† coconuts. These adjectives have oppressive connotations. Furthermore, the â€Å"witch-like cry† symbolises evil, and this creates appositions with the previous optimistic impression of the island, which hints to the readers that this island may not really be as magical as deemed. Another way the theme of violence is presented across the novel, is through the binary oppositions – principally the theme of civilisation versus savagery. The established division between the two groups of boys each represent a certain aspect to society. The characters (predominantly) Ralph, Piggy and Simon represent civilisation with the use of the conch to display order and control during the organised and contained meetings. On the other hand, there is Jack who leads his hunters (or his â€Å"tribe†), representing savagery. At first they work together, but disagreements shortly lead to to dehumanisation of their relationships – following progression from a â€Å"shy liking† between Jack and Ralph, to Jack trying to kill ralph towards the novel’s resolution. The fundamental peak of this opposition is present during the undeniable temptation of hunger, when Ralph and Piggy join the hunters as their desperation for food takes over. The metaphorical imagery set by Golding of Simon’s death shows the height of this violence and how the boys let the evil inside of them win. Simon’s allegorical role or function in the novel includes biblical insinuations. â€Å"†¦and was covered with a coat of pearls†¦Ã¢â‚¬  these divine allusions emphasise the violence present, as they contrast with the angelic and Christ-like quality of Simon, whom the savages mercilessly murdered. Following this incident, the conch is shattered and when Piggy’s glasses are broken (along with the death of the fire that previously occurred), it foreshadows the total destruction of any possible civilisation ever returning back to the island, showing the demise but need of law, order and reason in society). Hereafter, Ralph is left alone to face the savages. This all underlines Golding’s ideas that humans have evil and hatred deep inside of them, and could let the inner beast completely and violently take over if they be submissive to even a bit of temptation. The other binary opposition also prevailing in this novel is  dictatorship versus democracy. This juxtaposition is also used to portray violence across the novel. For example, â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.† Here, we can see the development of the behaviour of the, as turning more and more violent as soon as they lose sight of the conch, and the sense of democracy is broken down or lost. Violence is presented in the novel through the very diverse deaths of both Piggy and Simon. Prior to Simon’s murder, the boys had been chanting â€Å"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!† in â€Å"complementary circles†. These are powerful phrases which Golding pervades using the rule of three, to highlight the viciousness of this violent, tribal practice. The actions of these young boys are also atrocious and horrifying. â€Å"At once, the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, scream, struck, bit and tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.† These animalistic verbs have connotations of zoomorphism; resonating humans with the likeness and behaviour of animals. This is also significant as humans are meant to be intelligent – with the capacity for decent communication through language and words. However, here, the boys are so engulfed and consumed in their bestial actions of brutality, that they have lost touch with their ‘human’ sides, unable to differentiate between good and bad, that they have lost that capability to converse, and instead are resorting to un-civilised, barbaric means. â€Å"Teeth and claws† are widely associated with large predators, and so by using this, Golding is showing us that once you give aside to a little violence, you can turn into a complete ‘animal’. The verb â€Å"tearing† demonstrating ripping human is shocking and also portrays vehemence. This violence is further emphasized through Golding’s angelic description, post-death of the protagonist. â€Å"†¦was covered with a coat of pearls†¦Ã¢â‚¬  shows the purity reflected upon Simon, as well as â€Å"the line of his cheek silvered†, which has Christ-like implications. The phrase â€Å"silver shape† portrays a virtuous sheen and quality in Simon, as his â€Å"dead body moved out towards the open sea†, when he finally finds peace. This is also contrasted with Piggy’s matter-of-fact, and scientific death. â€Å"Piggy’s arms and legs twitched, like a pig’s after it has been killed†. The lexical field used is gruesome and horrific, thus again portraying the violence, long with the use of sub-vocals, â€Å"zup†,  noise, and clamour used to replace language, being used by the boys to express and connect with each other. Piggy’s death had been hinted from the very start of the novel, through small incidents of violence occurring. For example, it progressed from Roger at the beginning throwing stones at the little ones, aiming â€Å"to miss†, to him rolling the boulder that killed Piggy. Violence had also been present when Ralph â€Å"machine-gunned Piggy†. Moreover, jack’s violent actions of killing the pig at the start also foreshadows piggy’s death, as it led to him being killed in the end. Towards the novel’s conclusion, we are brought back to reality and reminded that these ‘savages’, are in fact just a â€Å"group of painted boys†. This is another way that violence is presented in the novel; because we are shown that all these horrific actions in the novel, were in fact only performed by little, once innocent children. Indeed, the violence had been so strenuous, that is had caused dehumanisation of values and characters. For example, at the start Percival â€Å"recited† his name, whereas when help arrived, â€Å"there was no more to come. Percival Wemys Madison sought in his head for an incantation that had faded clean away†. This disintegration of speech, and the fact Percival as forgotten how to speak underlines the destruction caused by the violence. The ending has a deus-ex-machina factor to it – right at the peak of the violence, rescue had come. The officer asks the boys â€Å"what have you been doing? Having a w ar or something?† which is ironic because they were actually having a â€Å"war†. This could also be seen as a microcosm for the Cold war that had been occurring, during the time Golding wrote this novel.

DropBox it just works

I was searching for a new opportunity that was more Drop client software to a Windows, Mac, or Linux PC or to an phone, pad, Blackberry, or Android mobile device, the software created a local Drop folder for accessing files of any size or type via an encrypted Internet connection from other Drop-enabled devices or from any web browser. The client software tracked changes in real-time to any file in the user's local Drop folder, then instantly synchronized a copy of the file on Dropsy's servers, updating only the portions of he file that had changed, in order to save bandwidth and time.Likewise, within milliseconds, copies of the file were synchronized in local Drop folders on all other devices connected through the user's account. â€Å"We engineered Drop so it just worked, all of the time,† Drew explained, â€Å"We supported all the major operating systems and handled all kinds of obstacles, from flaky wireless connections to corporate firewalls, which was not an easy task. † The company adopted a fermium business model, that is, it offered both free and premium accounts.Users got 2 gigabytes of storage for free and had the option to ay $10 per month for 50 gigabytes or $20 per month for 100 gigabytes. Industry observers estimated that 2% to 3% of Dropsy's users were paying customers, which implied a $10 million to $15 million annual revenue run rate in mid 2010. 1 At that time, the company had 25 employees, most of whom worked in engineering or support functions. Drop had raised $7. 2 million in two rounds of venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital and Cell Partners.Market Overview Drop was a late entrant to the fiercely competitive online backup and storage services space. The first firms in the space, which had small companies as customers, ere launched in the late asses by startups offering outsourced storage at remote decanters. As costs declined, services also became available for consumers seeking to backup their data online. Most ear ly users were technically adept, for example, college students downloading music from peer-to-peer file sharing services.Few firms in this first wave of services survived the dot. Com crash, but by late 2006 the market was crowded again with new competitors. In July 2007, the tech blob Amassable published a list of more than 80 online backup and storage services. 2 Market research vendors like DC fueled the hype by predicting that the worldwide market for online backup services would grow to $71 5 million by 2011. 3 Investor interest in online storage surged when Muzzy was acquired by EMCEE for $76 million in late 2007.Houston was confident that Drop could succeed in the face of intense competition. He reasoned that Drop would be able to collect revenue from some users, because consumers generally understood that storage cost money, whether it came in the form of a physical drive or an online service. When challenged by endure capitalists to explain why the world needed another clou d backup company, Houston asked them, â€Å"How many of those services do you personally use? † The answer from Vs. was almost invariably, â€Å"None of them. 4 Houston asserted that direct experience with rival services, which often failed to transfer data across firewalls and sometimes balked with big files or large numbers of files, was helpful in innovations that contributed to these advantages: 2 The first generation of cloud storage services was based on a simplistic model, where file accesses were redirected over the Internet instead of to your computer's hard rive. Your operating system and all your applications assume that accessing your hard drive is cheap and fast, but when these requests are instead routed to a server thousands of miles away, they can take an order of magnitude longer.This subtle but critical distinction explains why when working remotely, even simple actions like browsing a directory can freeze your computer for seconds at a time. We needed to t ake a completely different approach by storing files locally and updating the cloud copy in the background using a number of time- and vindications optimizations. Launching Drop It's hard to imagine Tom Cruise in Minority Report sending himself files via Gamma or lugging around a USB thumbprint. Ђ? Drew Houston After his frustrating experience on the bus, Houston started working on Drop full time in late 2006. He said: I needed it badly. I worked on multiple desktops and a laptop and could never remember to keep my USB drive with me. I was drowning in email attachments trying to share files for my previous startup. My home desktops power supply literally exploded one day, killing one of my hard drives, and I had no backups. I tried everything I could find but each product inevitably suffered problems with Internet latency, large files, bugs, or Just made me think too much. To help with the project, Houston recruited Rash Overdose, who dropped out of MIT and later became Dropsy's co-founder and chief technology officer. The pair spent the next four months coding a prototype in a tiny Cambridge apartment. With a working prototype in hand, Houston came up with an innovative approach for testing demand for a minimum viable product. He had produced various recruiting videos for his college fraternity; with this know-how he created a three-minute crassest of a product demo and uploaded it to Hacker News, a popular forum for developers. â€Å"l did this out of necessity.There was no way I could ask for people's files before we were 100% sure our code was reliable. But I had a prototype that showed off the product's best features. â€Å"7 Houston used the screens to recruit beta testers and to solicit feedback on features that Drop might include. He added, â€Å"Not launching is painful, but not learning can be fatal. We got a lot of feedback through that video, so we were learning while we were building. † Houston had another reason for posting the video on Hacker News: he hoped to ND selective Y Combinatory seed fund and incubator program.He recalled, â€Å"l had Just submitted my application to Y Combinatory and as a gambit to get their attention, I submitted the video to Hacker News. I hoped it would work. â€Å"8 It did: in April 2007, Drop received $15,000 in funding from Y Combinatory (see Exhibit 1 for excerpts from Dropsy's Y Combinatory application). In exchange for a small percentage of a startup's common equity-?usually 2% to 10%-?Y Combinatory provided up to $20,000 of seed capital as well as mentoring, workspace, and introductions to other advisors ND investors over a three-month period.Many startups applied to Y Combination's program, which had a track record for matching strong technical teams with elite venture capital firms. 3 Upon conclusion of the Y Combinatory program in September 2007, Drop raised $1. 2 million of convertible debt from Sequoia Capital. â€Å"We fit into Sequoia's sweet spot: we were two youn g technical founders, working out of an apartment, targeting a big market. It helped that we were ranked at the top of our Y Combinatory cohort,† Houston recalled.He and Overdose moved to San Francisco to continue building the many, but despite the capital infusion, they continued to run lean. Drop delivered its service through Amazon's SO cloud storage platform, avoiding the need for infrastructure investments and positioning the company to scale rapidly. The co- founders created a private beta program for a limited group of users who registered through a simple landing page. The page contained a short description of Drop and requested an email address from visitors interested in participating in the beta test (Exhibit 2).Houston commented: There's a spectrum of well-informed opinions about when to launch your product. At one end, Paul Graham tells entrepreneurs, â€Å"Launch early and often† to accelerate learning. At the other end, [respected software guru] Joel Spoo ky says, â€Å"Launch when your product doesn't completely suck. † We were managing people's files, and it's a big deal if you lose or ruin them. That meant moving toward Spooky end of the spectrum and keeping our beta test small. Next, Houston devised ways to generate demand for the beta service.In a guerilla marketing move, he produced another short demo video and posted it in March 2008 on Dig, a site that showcased web content deemed popular by Digs users. Houston felt it was essential to communicate in an authentic manner with the tech enthusiasts who frequented Dig. He sprinkled â€Å"Easter eggs† into the video, for example, references to Chocolate Rain (a Youth phenomenon), TIPS reports used in the movie Office Space, Mitt's Gillian Hall, and the 09 IF key for decrypting Blurry disks (dissemination of which, in the face of movie studio legal threats, was a hacker crusade).With this tongue-in- cheek nod to its tech-sway audience, the Drop video soared to the top of Dig, few days. Overnight, the list for Dropsy's private beta Jumped from 5,000 to 75,000 Ames, far exceeding the team's expectations. Building the Company Make something people want. -? Y Combinatory motto Based on consumer response to the second video, it appeared that the promise behind Drop-? â€Å"It Just works†-?resonated with potential early adopters, especially those who were familiar with the performance limitations of existing online backup/ storage services. Houston shifted his focus to product development.The Drop team was comprised almost entirely of engineers during the first two years of the firm's existence. Early on, board members tasked Houston with hiring a reduce manager to help coordinate engineering efforts and prioritize features. Houston reflected: If you ask ten people what a product manager is, you'll get ten different answers. They tend to fall on a continuum with the end points being â€Å"poet† and â€Å"librarian. † A librarian i s focused on blocking and tackling, coordination, and facilitating communication. This type of PM is inherently organized and follows up relentlessly.A poet PM listens to the voice of the customer during usability tests and focus groups and based on that insight formulates an aesthetic vision, a grand strategy, and a product roadman. Our first product manager was 4 more of a librarian than a poet, because we needed a librarian's discipline: even today we don't have enough of that DNA in the company. But he Just drove people nuts. It was painful, but we had to let him go after six months. For the next year, until Drop hired another product manager, the company relied on Houston and Overdose to drive the product roadman.Development proceeded more slowly than Houston had originally expected. In his April 2007 Y Combinatory application, Houston had projected availability of a version that he could charge for thin 8 weeks, but launching Drop to the public actually took 18 months. Houston said, â€Å"As a result of doing a few things well, we left a lot of other things behind. We had no business people, we were terrible at getting mainstream PR, and running fast and loose didn't make for the most predictable engineering organization. 9 Public Launch Drop opened its beta to the public in September 2008 at Outstretched, an annual competition showcasing high-potential startups. Drop was one of 50 startups selected to present at the event from a pool of over 1,000 applicants. ND also provide a product development deadline for the team. Houston mused that since Drop was following a tried-and-true blueprint for launching a consumer Internet service, his next step would have to be devising a marketing plan. Drop retained an online marketing consultant to help with this task.Houston said, â€Å"What do most web companies do? Apply to Outstretched, check. Buy Towards, check. Get real marketing people, check. â€Å"10 Early on, Drop attempted to acquire new customers throu gh paid search advertising. However, incumbents had bid up the cost per click for obvious search keywords. As a result, it cost Drop more than $300 to acquire a paying customer (Exhibit 3). This was not sustainable, since an annual subscription for 50 KGB service was priced at $99. Drop had tweaked its sign-up process to increase the conversation rate from free user to paying customer.The company also experimented with hiding the free service option for visitors who arrived via search ads. Houston recalled, â€Å"Our average acquisition cost per paying customer went from thousands of dollars to hundreds, but we still had a problem with our economics. And we didn't feel good about doing sneaky things to our users to get them to pay. 11 Sequoia Capital and Cell Partners subsequently led a $6 million Series A round of financing in October 2008, but even with additional capital in the bank, relying on paid search would not be a viable long- term option.In addition, the team had experim ented with display ads and affiliate programs, but these efforts also yielded unacceptably high acquisition costs per paying customer. Houston realized that with a fermium strategy, optimization of marketing messages and pricing would be critical to Dropsy's success; consistent with this priority, the company hired an analytics engineer as its eighth employee. Inspired by the Backbone â€Å"growth† team dedicated to user acquisition and engagement, Houston later assigned 30% of engineering resources to optimizing customer acquisition efforts.This team closely tracked metrics across Dropsy's conversion funnel by cohort,a for example: the percent of landing page visitors who registered as free users; the percent of registrants who still were active free users after X months; and the percent of free users who upgraded to paid subscribers after Y months. Houston said, â€Å"We run our business based on the ‘Startup Metrics for Pirates' framework developed by investor Dave McClure. He says firms should a A cohort was a set of prospects or users acquired at the same time and/or via the same marketing method. Closely track metrics around the acquisition of landing page visitors; activation of those visitors into users; retention of users; referral of new visitors by satisfied users; and revenue earned from users. † The team used A/B testing to fine tune page layouts free storage given to users. Analytics showed that gigabytes were not necessarily the best measure of value for Drop users. â€Å"We had all kinds of people paying us for Drop but not even bumping against their quota,† Houston said. Analytics likewise revealed that few users were accessing past versions of their files, all of which-?including deleted files-?were being permanently stored by Drop at a significant and rapidly growing cost. The company modified its policy, offering 30 days of undo history free of charge and making unlimited undo history a premium option. Houston sai d, â€Å"Just a tenth of a percent improvement in conversion rates, or a small decrease in the cost of serving a customer can have a huge impact on profitability. Premium is a spreadsheet game-?one you win with lots and lots of little moves . â€Å"13 Fourteen Months to the EpiphanyDespite improvements through analytics, Houston and his colleagues struggled to make the company marketing programs profitable. Nevertheless, the service grew rapidly, reaching 200,000 users ten days after launch and 1 million users seven months later. The vast majority of these users were acquired through word-of-mouth referrals and viral marketing efforts, rather than paid advertising. A relentless focus on ease of use and reliability had paid dividends in the form of loyal users who encouraged friends, family, and co-workers to try Drop. Houston commented, â€Å"The power of focus can't be understated.If you look at a feature matrix of Drop versus everyone else, we would never come in first. We woul d rather do a few things well rather than present Drop in a confusing way. â€Å"14 To identify ways to improve ease of use, the Drop team tracked support forums closely. Houston said, â€Å"We get feature requests for things we already have. These are particularly bad because it means that even though we've implemented something, our users can't find it. We pay close attention when that happens. â€Å"1 5 The company also maintained a â€Å"Vote† on its site, allowing users to vote and comment on treasures they would like to see added.Since the team gained insight on users' preferences through support forums and the Vote, the company did not conduct regular consumer surveys, but it did conduct occasional usability tests. In one instance, the entire team watched as not one of five typical consumers recruited from Scraggliest could successfully install and interact with the application. Houston recalled: Watching them fail was excruciating. Imagine if your coffee maker Just spit coffee all over the counter every third time you used it or your car stopped in the middle of the road. That's the computer experience for a normal person.The PC is always conspiring against you to lose your stuff or break in some weird way. You have no idea what happened or what you did wrong. Watching those five consumers struggle to try to figure out how to use our product was probably the most painful day we ever had as a team, but afterward, we created a list of 70 things to fix. B A/B tests divided a set of similar individuals into a control group that experienced a status quo product and a test group that experienced a product with one modified element, to determine if the modification yielded a statistically significant DropBox it just works I was searching for a new opportunity that was more Drop client software to a Windows, Mac, or Linux PC or to an phone, pad, Blackberry, or Android mobile device, the software created a local Drop folder for accessing files of any size or type via an encrypted Internet connection from other Drop-enabled devices or from any web browser. The client software tracked changes in real-time to any file in the user's local Drop folder, then instantly synchronized a copy of the file on Dropsy's servers, updating only the portions of he file that had changed, in order to save bandwidth and time.Likewise, within milliseconds, copies of the file were synchronized in local Drop folders on all other devices connected through the user's account. â€Å"We engineered Drop so it just worked, all of the time,† Drew explained, â€Å"We supported all the major operating systems and handled all kinds of obstacles, from flaky wireless connections to corporate firewalls, which was not an easy task. † The company adopted a fermium business model, that is, it offered both free and premium accounts.Users got 2 gigabytes of storage for free and had the option to ay $10 per month for 50 gigabytes or $20 per month for 100 gigabytes. Industry observers estimated that 2% to 3% of Dropsy's users were paying customers, which implied a $10 million to $15 million annual revenue run rate in mid 2010. 1 At that time, the company had 25 employees, most of whom worked in engineering or support functions. Drop had raised $7. 2 million in two rounds of venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital and Cell Partners.Market Overview Drop was a late entrant to the fiercely competitive online backup and storage services space. The first firms in the space, which had small companies as customers, ere launched in the late asses by startups offering outsourced storage at remote decanters. As costs declined, services also became available for consumers seeking to backup their data online. Most ear ly users were technically adept, for example, college students downloading music from peer-to-peer file sharing services.Few firms in this first wave of services survived the dot. Com crash, but by late 2006 the market was crowded again with new competitors. In July 2007, the tech blob Amassable published a list of more than 80 online backup and storage services. 2 Market research vendors like DC fueled the hype by predicting that the worldwide market for online backup services would grow to $71 5 million by 2011. 3 Investor interest in online storage surged when Muzzy was acquired by EMCEE for $76 million in late 2007.Houston was confident that Drop could succeed in the face of intense competition. He reasoned that Drop would be able to collect revenue from some users, because consumers generally understood that storage cost money, whether it came in the form of a physical drive or an online service. When challenged by endure capitalists to explain why the world needed another clou d backup company, Houston asked them, â€Å"How many of those services do you personally use? † The answer from Vs. was almost invariably, â€Å"None of them. 4 Houston asserted that direct experience with rival services, which often failed to transfer data across firewalls and sometimes balked with big files or large numbers of files, was helpful in innovations that contributed to these advantages: 2 The first generation of cloud storage services was based on a simplistic model, where file accesses were redirected over the Internet instead of to your computer's hard rive. Your operating system and all your applications assume that accessing your hard drive is cheap and fast, but when these requests are instead routed to a server thousands of miles away, they can take an order of magnitude longer.This subtle but critical distinction explains why when working remotely, even simple actions like browsing a directory can freeze your computer for seconds at a time. We needed to t ake a completely different approach by storing files locally and updating the cloud copy in the background using a number of time- and vindications optimizations. Launching Drop It's hard to imagine Tom Cruise in Minority Report sending himself files via Gamma or lugging around a USB thumbprint. Ђ? Drew Houston After his frustrating experience on the bus, Houston started working on Drop full time in late 2006. He said: I needed it badly. I worked on multiple desktops and a laptop and could never remember to keep my USB drive with me. I was drowning in email attachments trying to share files for my previous startup. My home desktops power supply literally exploded one day, killing one of my hard drives, and I had no backups. I tried everything I could find but each product inevitably suffered problems with Internet latency, large files, bugs, or Just made me think too much. To help with the project, Houston recruited Rash Overdose, who dropped out of MIT and later became Dropsy's co-founder and chief technology officer. The pair spent the next four months coding a prototype in a tiny Cambridge apartment. With a working prototype in hand, Houston came up with an innovative approach for testing demand for a minimum viable product. He had produced various recruiting videos for his college fraternity; with this know-how he created a three-minute crassest of a product demo and uploaded it to Hacker News, a popular forum for developers. â€Å"l did this out of necessity.There was no way I could ask for people's files before we were 100% sure our code was reliable. But I had a prototype that showed off the product's best features. â€Å"7 Houston used the screens to recruit beta testers and to solicit feedback on features that Drop might include. He added, â€Å"Not launching is painful, but not learning can be fatal. We got a lot of feedback through that video, so we were learning while we were building. † Houston had another reason for posting the video on Hacker News: he hoped to ND selective Y Combinatory seed fund and incubator program.He recalled, â€Å"l had Just submitted my application to Y Combinatory and as a gambit to get their attention, I submitted the video to Hacker News. I hoped it would work. â€Å"8 It did: in April 2007, Drop received $15,000 in funding from Y Combinatory (see Exhibit 1 for excerpts from Dropsy's Y Combinatory application). In exchange for a small percentage of a startup's common equity-?usually 2% to 10%-?Y Combinatory provided up to $20,000 of seed capital as well as mentoring, workspace, and introductions to other advisors ND investors over a three-month period.Many startups applied to Y Combination's program, which had a track record for matching strong technical teams with elite venture capital firms. 3 Upon conclusion of the Y Combinatory program in September 2007, Drop raised $1. 2 million of convertible debt from Sequoia Capital. â€Å"We fit into Sequoia's sweet spot: we were two youn g technical founders, working out of an apartment, targeting a big market. It helped that we were ranked at the top of our Y Combinatory cohort,† Houston recalled.He and Overdose moved to San Francisco to continue building the many, but despite the capital infusion, they continued to run lean. Drop delivered its service through Amazon's SO cloud storage platform, avoiding the need for infrastructure investments and positioning the company to scale rapidly. The co- founders created a private beta program for a limited group of users who registered through a simple landing page. The page contained a short description of Drop and requested an email address from visitors interested in participating in the beta test (Exhibit 2).Houston commented: There's a spectrum of well-informed opinions about when to launch your product. At one end, Paul Graham tells entrepreneurs, â€Å"Launch early and often† to accelerate learning. At the other end, [respected software guru] Joel Spoo ky says, â€Å"Launch when your product doesn't completely suck. † We were managing people's files, and it's a big deal if you lose or ruin them. That meant moving toward Spooky end of the spectrum and keeping our beta test small. Next, Houston devised ways to generate demand for the beta service.In a guerilla marketing move, he produced another short demo video and posted it in March 2008 on Dig, a site that showcased web content deemed popular by Digs users. Houston felt it was essential to communicate in an authentic manner with the tech enthusiasts who frequented Dig. He sprinkled â€Å"Easter eggs† into the video, for example, references to Chocolate Rain (a Youth phenomenon), TIPS reports used in the movie Office Space, Mitt's Gillian Hall, and the 09 IF key for decrypting Blurry disks (dissemination of which, in the face of movie studio legal threats, was a hacker crusade).With this tongue-in- cheek nod to its tech-sway audience, the Drop video soared to the top of Dig, few days. Overnight, the list for Dropsy's private beta Jumped from 5,000 to 75,000 Ames, far exceeding the team's expectations. Building the Company Make something people want. -? Y Combinatory motto Based on consumer response to the second video, it appeared that the promise behind Drop-? â€Å"It Just works†-?resonated with potential early adopters, especially those who were familiar with the performance limitations of existing online backup/ storage services. Houston shifted his focus to product development.The Drop team was comprised almost entirely of engineers during the first two years of the firm's existence. Early on, board members tasked Houston with hiring a reduce manager to help coordinate engineering efforts and prioritize features. Houston reflected: If you ask ten people what a product manager is, you'll get ten different answers. They tend to fall on a continuum with the end points being â€Å"poet† and â€Å"librarian. † A librarian i s focused on blocking and tackling, coordination, and facilitating communication. This type of PM is inherently organized and follows up relentlessly.A poet PM listens to the voice of the customer during usability tests and focus groups and based on that insight formulates an aesthetic vision, a grand strategy, and a product roadman. Our first product manager was 4 more of a librarian than a poet, because we needed a librarian's discipline: even today we don't have enough of that DNA in the company. But he Just drove people nuts. It was painful, but we had to let him go after six months. For the next year, until Drop hired another product manager, the company relied on Houston and Overdose to drive the product roadman.Development proceeded more slowly than Houston had originally expected. In his April 2007 Y Combinatory application, Houston had projected availability of a version that he could charge for thin 8 weeks, but launching Drop to the public actually took 18 months. Houston said, â€Å"As a result of doing a few things well, we left a lot of other things behind. We had no business people, we were terrible at getting mainstream PR, and running fast and loose didn't make for the most predictable engineering organization. 9 Public Launch Drop opened its beta to the public in September 2008 at Outstretched, an annual competition showcasing high-potential startups. Drop was one of 50 startups selected to present at the event from a pool of over 1,000 applicants. ND also provide a product development deadline for the team. Houston mused that since Drop was following a tried-and-true blueprint for launching a consumer Internet service, his next step would have to be devising a marketing plan. Drop retained an online marketing consultant to help with this task.Houston said, â€Å"What do most web companies do? Apply to Outstretched, check. Buy Towards, check. Get real marketing people, check. â€Å"10 Early on, Drop attempted to acquire new customers throu gh paid search advertising. However, incumbents had bid up the cost per click for obvious search keywords. As a result, it cost Drop more than $300 to acquire a paying customer (Exhibit 3). This was not sustainable, since an annual subscription for 50 KGB service was priced at $99. Drop had tweaked its sign-up process to increase the conversation rate from free user to paying customer.The company also experimented with hiding the free service option for visitors who arrived via search ads. Houston recalled, â€Å"Our average acquisition cost per paying customer went from thousands of dollars to hundreds, but we still had a problem with our economics. And we didn't feel good about doing sneaky things to our users to get them to pay. 11 Sequoia Capital and Cell Partners subsequently led a $6 million Series A round of financing in October 2008, but even with additional capital in the bank, relying on paid search would not be a viable long- term option.In addition, the team had experim ented with display ads and affiliate programs, but these efforts also yielded unacceptably high acquisition costs per paying customer. Houston realized that with a fermium strategy, optimization of marketing messages and pricing would be critical to Dropsy's success; consistent with this priority, the company hired an analytics engineer as its eighth employee. Inspired by the Backbone â€Å"growth† team dedicated to user acquisition and engagement, Houston later assigned 30% of engineering resources to optimizing customer acquisition efforts.This team closely tracked metrics across Dropsy's conversion funnel by cohort,a for example: the percent of landing page visitors who registered as free users; the percent of registrants who still were active free users after X months; and the percent of free users who upgraded to paid subscribers after Y months. Houston said, â€Å"We run our business based on the ‘Startup Metrics for Pirates' framework developed by investor Dave McClure. He says firms should a A cohort was a set of prospects or users acquired at the same time and/or via the same marketing method. Closely track metrics around the acquisition of landing page visitors; activation of those visitors into users; retention of users; referral of new visitors by satisfied users; and revenue earned from users. † The team used A/B testing to fine tune page layouts free storage given to users. Analytics showed that gigabytes were not necessarily the best measure of value for Drop users. â€Å"We had all kinds of people paying us for Drop but not even bumping against their quota,† Houston said. Analytics likewise revealed that few users were accessing past versions of their files, all of which-?including deleted files-?were being permanently stored by Drop at a significant and rapidly growing cost. The company modified its policy, offering 30 days of undo history free of charge and making unlimited undo history a premium option. Houston sai d, â€Å"Just a tenth of a percent improvement in conversion rates, or a small decrease in the cost of serving a customer can have a huge impact on profitability. Premium is a spreadsheet game-?one you win with lots and lots of little moves . â€Å"13 Fourteen Months to the EpiphanyDespite improvements through analytics, Houston and his colleagues struggled to make the company marketing programs profitable. Nevertheless, the service grew rapidly, reaching 200,000 users ten days after launch and 1 million users seven months later. The vast majority of these users were acquired through word-of-mouth referrals and viral marketing efforts, rather than paid advertising. A relentless focus on ease of use and reliability had paid dividends in the form of loyal users who encouraged friends, family, and co-workers to try Drop. Houston commented, â€Å"The power of focus can't be understated.If you look at a feature matrix of Drop versus everyone else, we would never come in first. We woul d rather do a few things well rather than present Drop in a confusing way. â€Å"14 To identify ways to improve ease of use, the Drop team tracked support forums closely. Houston said, â€Å"We get feature requests for things we already have. These are particularly bad because it means that even though we've implemented something, our users can't find it. We pay close attention when that happens. â€Å"1 5 The company also maintained a â€Å"Vote† on its site, allowing users to vote and comment on treasures they would like to see added.Since the team gained insight on users' preferences through support forums and the Vote, the company did not conduct regular consumer surveys, but it did conduct occasional usability tests. In one instance, the entire team watched as not one of five typical consumers recruited from Scraggliest could successfully install and interact with the application. Houston recalled: Watching them fail was excruciating. Imagine if your coffee maker Just spit coffee all over the counter every third time you used it or your car stopped in the middle of the road. That's the computer experience for a normal person.The PC is always conspiring against you to lose your stuff or break in some weird way. You have no idea what happened or what you did wrong. Watching those five consumers struggle to try to figure out how to use our product was probably the most painful day we ever had as a team, but afterward, we created a list of 70 things to fix. B A/B tests divided a set of similar individuals into a control group that experienced a status quo product and a test group that experienced a product with one modified element, to determine if the modification yielded a statistically significant

How to Find Adult Education and Earn Your GED in Ohio

How to Find Adult Education and Earn Your GED in Ohio GED (General Educational Development) testing in the state of Ohio is handled by the Ohio Department of Education. The state is continuing its partnership with GED Testing Service and, as of January 1, 2014, offers the new 2014 computer-based GED test. The Ohio GED site is very easy to use and offers lots of helpful information, including the dates of when the information is updated, so you know what you are reading is current. Clicking on the navigation links on the left side of the page will give you information about GED practice centers around the state, practice tests, directions for setting up an account at the GED Testing Service, necessary forms, and a long list of frequently asked questions. Also on the left navigation bar, youll find information about Ohios Adult Diploma Program, a job training program that helps adult students prepare for in-demand jobs in Ohio. Rather than focusing on hours and grades, the program is based on competency in a self-paced format. Once you have learned a set of competencies and can demonstrate mastery of each required skill, you are assigned a provider who helps you create a customized student success plan. There are five pilot schools involved with this program: Stark State Community CollegePickaway-Ross Joint Vocational SchoolMiami Valley Career TechnicalCenter, Cuyahoga Community CollegePenta Career Center Students can choose to learn the following careers: automotive service technicians and mechanics, bus drivers, computer and information systems managers, dental assistants, electricians, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, financial managers, general and operations managers, healthcare social workers, industrial truck and tractor operators, information security analysts, light truck or delivery drivers, nurse practitioners, occupational therapy assistants, office clerks, paralegals and legal assistants, sales managers, social workers, installers, and tellers. Lots of great choices! Ohio also offers an additional program for adult students called 22 Adult High School Diploma Program. This program is designed for adults 22 years old, or older, who want to pursue a career in a field not included in the Adult Diploma Program listed above. Counselors work with students to help them identify the jobs they want, the courses they need, and the assessments theyll need to take. This program is available at: Ashland County Community AcademyCleveland Academy for Scholarship Technology and LeadershipColumbus State Community CollegeDohn Community High SchoolLife Skills Center of DaytonLondon AcademyPolly Fox Academy Community SchoolQuaker Digital Academy (online)Townsend North Community School Contact information for each location is available on the programs page. Click on the gray box in the upper right corner for a PDF with complete information about this program, including how to watch a webinar with additional information about applying. Ohio Means Jobs From the Ohios Options for Adult Diploma and GED page, you have access to everything you need to know for the option you choose. Of special interest is the link under the Adult Diploma heading that reads: Ohio Means Jobs. Clicking on that link takes you to a new page where, if you select Individual, you can then specify if you are a veteran, unemployment compensation claimant, job and family services customer, an individual with a disability, or a college student, and you can search for jobs that fit your category. Links on that page also lead to more career help, including information about online learning and a budget calculator. Good luck! Return to the list of states.

Research Rationale and Methodology †Law 500 Level Research Paper

Research Rationale and Methodology – Law 500 Level Research Paper Free Online Research Papers Research Rationale and Methodology Law 500 Level Research Paper The war on terrorism has become an extremely important and contemporary issue due to events occurring in the last decade. The tragic events of September 11th 2001 and the Madrid bombing of 11th March 2004 have impacted on the entire world. Every person has their own personal opinion on these events, which has resulted in much debate on the issue of global terrorism. This issue should therefore, provide the basis for an extremely interesting investigation as the many differing opinions will give rise to a wide range of potential literature on the subject. The literature review will be an essential part of this study as all literature collected will have to be examined carefully in order to decide whether a topic has already been covered. Perhaps more importantly, it will also give rise to an informed decision as to which literature articles should actually form part of the study. The topic is worth researching because global terrorism of the magnitude witnessed on September 11th is a relatively new phenomenon. It may be the case therefore, that there are some quite considerable gaps in the field of research into terrorism. Research Methodology: Investigating the measures afforded by the law in order to protect the public from the war on terrorism requires a comparative study. This is because the research question formulated clearly shows that the study will require a comparison of the law relating to terrorism before and after the events of September 11th. My study will be of qualitative research rather than using quantitative research as I personally feel that this is the best approach to take when investigating a topic such as terrorism. This is because one of my aims in performing the research is to use a wide range of data which will help me to achieve a further goal of gaining insight and perception into the past and current laws on terrorism. I will investigate the research question that I posed in conjunction with my further studies and results form my sub-questions. I will take each sub-question in turn and will analyse the extent to which these questions can help me in my research of my main topic by giving me a b etter conceptual knowledge of the subject. This will then enable me to create a coherent investigation and subsequent evaluation of my chose topic of the war on terrorism. Research of the sub-questions: In order to attempt to answer my first sub-question, I will need to begin by carrying out a legal database search for all the legislation passed before and after the events of September 11th 2001. I intend to use both Lexis and Westlaw as the databases to conduct my initial search. After viewing the results for this search I will attempt to break down the subject matter in relevant parts. I will then conducting both Boolean and Truncation searches of the legal databases to ensure that I have not missed any vital information. My preferred search engine for investigating my first sub-question will be Google. Using this tool I can gather lots of opinions from the general public and from academics on the subject of September 11th and the law relating to terrorism before and after this date. My first investigation on Google would be a phrase search and this would be once again followed by Boolean and truncation searches. I can also access electronic journals using Westlaw and Lexis and will carry out a library catalogue search to see if there are any other journals which could be of use. I will also investigate secondary sources such as legal textbooks which should help me to find out the basic elements regarding the public and their changing attitudes towards terrorism. This will also enable me to put all my other research items in context and will help in my perception of the whole area of terrorism and the current and past law relating to this subject. My second sub-question has links with my first sub-question and therefore, any research I obtain on the first sub-question will be of good value. Once again, a legal database search should reveal any statutes or case law on the subject of terrorism both prior to and after the events of September 11th. This sub-question covers quite a large area and therefore I may benefit from performing a wide search of multiple search engines using a metasearch engine such as Vivisimo. I believe however, that problems may arise in my investigation into this particular sub-question due to its close personal link with the distressing nature of the events that occurred. It might be hard to find officials willing to talk about the tragedy and the opinion of most of the general public would possibly be biased based upon the horror that they witnessed. It may be possible to attempt to contact someone close to the tragedy itself by phone or email but this would have to be approached with extreme care. Another worrying problem is that the general public is not always clear on what exactly the laws governing terrorism are. This would mean that they might not always be able to give a well informed, reasoned opinion. I do not believe therefore, that attempting to carry out a questionnaire to assess the opinions of the general public would be of any use in my study for the reasons highlighted above. In conducting an investigation into my third sub-question I will focus my research on legislation which was in force before September 11th 2001 . This will give me a legalistic outlook on the topic which will be of good use in relation to my actual research question. I will also investigate legal journals and published articles on the subject of terrorism using Westlaw and Lexis as my tools. Research Outcome: From the research to be conducted, I believe that I will find that attitudes towards terrorism have changed dramatically since September 11th 2001. I feel that after this tragic event, people began to fully understand the menace posed by global terrorism. I believe that the general public will become better informed about the problem and of the laws in place designed to protect them from this threat. I believe that the research would show that national law does reflect public opinion on the issue of terrorism in that laws enacted after September 11th offer stiff penalties for anyone convicted of a terrorist offence. I expect to experience problems before I eventually arrive at my research conclusions. I envisage the main problem to be that of sensitivity as the hurt caused by the September 11th attack may prevent me from interviewing certain people and from accessing certain information that might have been censored to protect the victims families. A further problem associated with investigating such a delicate topic as the September 11th is that public opinion may be extremely biased as a result of the tragedy. This must be taken into account when analysing the research. The research must also be read in conjunction with its social context. By this I mean the time when the research was carried out, political impetus and the possible person experiences of the commentator. Therefore, an illustration of this is it would not have been a good idea to attempt to research the September 11th event a week after in happened. Time in between was needed in between to allow the world to settle down and reflect on the tragedy. A final potential problem with my investigation is that my research may be too narrow. The delicateness of the September 11th events means that certain information and research may be of limited access. The actual searches that I have chosen to use in my gathering of information may also be too narrow themselves. This would lead to an unbalanced and unreliable investigation. I believe that the investigation I have outlined above, will provide an effective and purposive study into the subject of global terrorism and the effect of the law on terrorism both prior to and after September 11th 2001. It will hopefully be able to demonstrate that there are gaps in the field of research into terrorism and the laws relating to terrorism. The investigation should make an attempt to begin to bridge part of this gap by emphasising the current problems encountered by the public and between their respective nations in their war on terrorism. Research Papers on Research Rationale and Methodology - Law 500 Level Research PaperResearch Process Part OneQuebec and CanadaEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesGenetic EngineeringAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaMind TravelStandardized TestingBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug Use

Freeze Tag Drama Class Improv Game

Freeze Tag Drama Class Improv Game The Basics Freeze Tag (also known simply as Freeze) is an improvisation game and a great drama exercise for performers at any level. It works best in groups of eight or more. Two volunteers step onto the stage while the rest of the actors sit and wait for the right moment to join in. I Need a Location As with most improv activities, audience participation is essential. The actors on stage will request suggestions for a specific location. If this is a classroom exercise, the drama instructor should encourage the audience to be creative with their suggestions. For example, Stuck inside a giant vending machine or In the break room of Santas Workshop is far more inspiring than Shopping mall. The performers listen to a few of the suggestions. They then quickly select an interesting setting and the scene begins. The goal of the actors is to invent characters and dialogue off the cuff. They should quickly establish a storyline and conflict. Also, they should be encouraged to move about the stage space, pantomiming whatever they wish to incorporate into the scene. Calling Freeze! After the actors have been given enough time to create an interesting situation, the performers sitting in the audience can now participate. All they need to do is shout, Freeze! The actors on stage will then stand motionless. Whoever called out freeze enters the stage space. He or she takes the place of one of the actors, recreating the exact same pose. This can sometimes be challenging if the actor happens to be in a ballet position or crawling on all fours. But thats part of the fun! Keep It Going A brand new scene begins with a different setting and different characters. No more suggestions are taken from the audience. Instead, it is up to the performers to invent the situation. Drama instructors should ask students to let the physical positions influence the storyline of the next scene. For example, if one set of performers is frozen while in the middle of a tug of war contest, the next scene could take place at an Amish barn raising. Also, instructors should make certain that each scene is given enough time to develop. Usually, two or three minutes is ample time to establish character and conflict. At first, improvisation activities might be very challenging for unseasoned performers. Yet, we often played these sorts of games when we were children. Remember: Improvisation is simply an advanced form of playing pretend.

Summarize Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Summarize - Essay Example This means that students were expected to understand the lectures through the discussion forum. This helps the students in learning the lecture in a wider context. This leads to learning environment where speaking is not necessary. No set rules regarding learning strategy was provided by the instructor but the instructed provided guidelines regarding how communication should take place between students in the forum. The coursed focused on team based work as students helped each other in finding solutions and students were even encouraged to look for solutions on their own. Attendance for the course was not required, lectures were not deemed necessary, topics were given to the students and students were made to find content for the topics on their own. The course seemed to be quite vague as the course did not even provided any guidelines regarding course outcomes. The course overview already focuses on the interaction and the learning

Comparative Economic Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comparative Economic Development - Essay Example Industrialization of the society had positive as well as negative impact on societies. In Britain as well as in US, industrial revolution has led to inexpensive goods, transportation, and communication developments. From the others side, such issues as pollution, child labor and over-crowding of cities were also raised. Even though there were some differences between US and Britain in terms of industrial revolution, there is a respectable degree of similarities between the two revolutions (More, 2000: p.17-18). The causes of industrial revolution in Britain are still debated while most of the historians think that the revolution was the result of the social and institutional changes after the English Civil War. The following British Agricultural Revolution improved the efficiency of food production - farms became less dependent on human labor and people were forced into the cities attracted by the new opportunities in factories. England was expanding colonially and new financial markets have been created in the result of the international trade. Technological advances appeared all the time, steam engine being of the highest importance because transportation development gave the opportunity trade development. In addition, Great Britain had vast availability of the key resources and the dense population for the small geographic unit (Berlanstein, 1992: p. 57). For example, the availability of the coal, iron, tin and water power created the perfect environment for the further expansion of ind ustry. The industrial revolution in US has started after the Civil War. Unlike Great Britain when the industrial growth was spontaneous and fast growing, US already had some industrial developments and after the Civil War they started to expand to include petroleum refining, steel manufacturing and electrical power. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain was completed in the same steps as in US with the only difference that US people already had an example to follow - British. Industrial expansion has changed the American society - two new classes appeared: rich industrialists and prosperous middle class workers (Green, 1939: p. 68). If British industry was self-sufficient, the American industry greatly benefited from the newly arrived immigrants and migrants from rural areas who were willing to work for low payment. As the result, in the 18th century the landed aristocracy became the ruling class in Britain. More and more people were moving to cities - their land was either abandoned or sold at the very low price. Rich people were willing to buy the land and as the result their property increased significantly. Further, these people invested funds into factories and machinery. There were two classes of aristocrats - those who were historically rich and came from noble families and those who managed to get land in the result of rural-urban migration (More, 2000: p. 95). The similar situation was in America with the only difference that land owners did not encourage people to migrate - there was enough land for everybody but there was nobody to work on it. Industrial revolution has much increased the power of landed aristocracy in America because they were able to reduce human power expenses. The trade issue was of significant importance for both nations, British and American. The most important difference was the

Women and Economics in Colonial and Post Revolution America Essay

Women and Economics in Colonial and Post Revolution America - Essay Example She discusses among many other topics: motherhood, sex, domestic duties, the role of women as educators, feminine inclinations, women's relationships with men and the existence of women as human beings. I believe that human beings have in their nature a primal instinct for survival and that women have relied on men for their livelihood for so long that this human instinct has become blunted. This view is supported in Gilman's work where her writings point to a belief that women are now more feminine than they are human 1 By Gilman's definitions, women had a primarily "feminine" role to play in colonial America. In early southern colonies, females were heavily outnumbered by men but the hardships of life ensured that all inhabitants had to earn their living regardless of gender. Women attended domestic duties like sewing and cooking and men devoted more time to productivity in the fields but regardless of job descriptions, all were kept busy in they strife of making a living. With a rise in European conflict and the spread of these disputes to America, a new population of widows emerged who were previously dependent on their husbands for the livelihood of their families 2 These women gradually integrated themselves into the urban workforce; a move that was encouraged by authorities to decrease the number of widows and orphans dependent on charity.3 The revolutionary age brought change in the attitudes of women. Prior to the American revolution, migrant families to America had brought with them ideals about a "woman's place" and perceptions of "femininity" from the bases of their European origins. However, as the political environment changed and people in general became more outspoken, there evolved a greater tolerance to opinionated women. Women began to hold meetings in their homes involving both men and women where they criticized political and religious figures and discussed everything from economics to medicine. 4 The American Revolution was not simply a military conflict between American colonies and the British Empire; there was a strong cultural and economic resistance in America. Americans became more reluctant to rely on British produced goods and this started an industrial economy for women. Because of this boycott of British products, women became responsible for producing most of their families clothing at home in addition to other consumables like candles and soap 5 6. To continue to support their families and produce food for the army, women also took to the fields and assumed an important role in agriculture 5. If a family owned a business like an inn or a printing press, women often assumed these entrepreneurial roles while their husbands were away 7. This allowed women to demonstrate levels of competency and success at opportunities that were denied to them in the past. Women launched a full scale assault to cement their place in the American workforce. In the past, women who wer e forced to work were careful not make their activities too obvious. There remained traditions in society that a woman's place was in her home; her private sphere. However, during the revolution, as the demand for women in the workplace grew, women became more prepared to advertise their products and services 8. Women were not only participating in docile duties. Women sometimes traveled with

Human Sexuality Book Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Human Sexuality Book Review - Essay Example s up the interesting possibility that other cultures may consider Western sexuality to be odd or abnormal, in much the same way as earlier writers on sexuality have tended to accept the Western model as normal, while sexual patterns in other cultures are viewed as strange and exotic. This book is very useful to a reader because it offers a more composite human framework of sexuality rather than a model dominated by Western thought patterns. The authors view sexuality as a primitive heritage which has evolved over the course of time, both physically and behaviorally, as a means to cope with the changes taking place in the immediate environment. The focus of this book is this on the elements that all human being share in common as one species rather than in highlighting and focusing upon the differences in sexual behavioral patterns and attitudes across different countries in the world. Such differences, even where they occur, are to be understood and appreciated and used as a means to enhance out understanding of ourselves as different yet related groups within the same species. 2. This book also goes into an indepth discussion of sexual behavior in human beings. It covers many of the important issues such as the anatomy of the male and female bodies, puberty and adolescence and the sexual changes that occur during this period, pregnancy and childbirth and as well as issues related to the nature of sexuality as it changes with ageing. The book also discussed sexual positions and how sexual foreplay and mating patterns have developed in the human race over the course of our evolution from primates. What is fresh and different about this book however is that it examines these issues from an anthropological perspective, where the cultural context is also taken into consideration rather than viewing sexual progression over the life cycle as being an isolated event. In describing the development of sexuality and especially the institution of marriage, the book

Police Inhuman Treatment of Female Offenders Essay

Police Inhuman Treatment of Female Offenders - Essay Example She believes her complaint would have been "swept under the carpet" if not for a letter on her behalf from former Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan’ (news.com.au). The news primarily deals with the complaint of one ‘Lee’ (name changed) who was picked up by the police when she had failed to attend a court hearing on a minor theft from a shop in the 1990s. It had taken the court proceedings and police more than 13 years to pick her up from the same address where she had been residing since the time she had committed the offense. She was stripped naked by four male police and put in the padded cell for about an hour before letting her join the rest of the jail inmates. As a child, Lee was sexually abused in a foster home and gave evidence to the same in the Mullighan inquiry. She is a mother of three children and for her, this incident ‘was like being raped all over again†¦I cant put words to what they have done to me, it is just inhumane’. She had lodged a complaint to the complaints authority in 2006, the verdict of which is still awaited. Judge Mulligan has said that despite her traumatic childhood experience, Lee has largely kept herself out of any trouble and has brought up her children alone. Since her complaint, more people have come out in her support, who themselves had undergone same humiliation in the Christie beach police station. In a letter to Police Commissioner Mal Hyde, obtained by The Advertiser, the Police Complaints Authority says it has "long-standing disquiet" over the practice, which has been labeled "violent and disturbing" by civil libertarians. The complaints authority investigator, Helen Lines has been concerned about the practice that violates the personal dignity of the persons and ‘would focus on the practice of using padded cells to confine distressed prisoners to prevent them from harming themselves with their clothing’. George Mancini of SA. Council of Civil Liberties has also been shocked at the ‘humiliating and violent’ practice and says that the distressed prisoners need to be handled with more sensitivity and care.

Human Sexuality Book Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Human Sexuality Book Review - Essay Example s up the interesting possibility that other cultures may consider Western sexuality to be odd or abnormal, in much the same way as earlier writers on sexuality have tended to accept the Western model as normal, while sexual patterns in other cultures are viewed as strange and exotic. This book is very useful to a reader because it offers a more composite human framework of sexuality rather than a model dominated by Western thought patterns. The authors view sexuality as a primitive heritage which has evolved over the course of time, both physically and behaviorally, as a means to cope with the changes taking place in the immediate environment. The focus of this book is this on the elements that all human being share in common as one species rather than in highlighting and focusing upon the differences in sexual behavioral patterns and attitudes across different countries in the world. Such differences, even where they occur, are to be understood and appreciated and used as a means to enhance out understanding of ourselves as different yet related groups within the same species. 2. This book also goes into an indepth discussion of sexual behavior in human beings. It covers many of the important issues such as the anatomy of the male and female bodies, puberty and adolescence and the sexual changes that occur during this period, pregnancy and childbirth and as well as issues related to the nature of sexuality as it changes with ageing. The book also discussed sexual positions and how sexual foreplay and mating patterns have developed in the human race over the course of our evolution from primates. What is fresh and different about this book however is that it examines these issues from an anthropological perspective, where the cultural context is also taken into consideration rather than viewing sexual progression over the life cycle as being an isolated event. In describing the development of sexuality and especially the institution of marriage, the book

Making The Classroom Work for You Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Making The Classroom Work for You - Essay Example 10- How can you become more of an active participant in class? Of the the seven tips outlined in the section on class participation,which do you feel you can learn from the most? Explain. In what ways would you like to improve your class participation? The seven tips are come to class prepared, ask questions, volunteer, take an active role in group activities, active listener, resist temptation to tune out or daydream and focus on class. Of the seven tips, I believe I learn from taking an active role in group activities because it is more fun and engaging not to mention that it removes boredom and surely one cannot tune out when active. There is a difference in the expectations between college and high school in terms of learning process. In college, free exchange of ideas is more common and students are encouraged to think independently or to be critical. It is also expected among college students that they would know how to find information for class or reports through research. In high school, students are more dependent to teachers for information. There are also less reports compared to college and the academic requirements are less rigorous. 14-What did you discover about your learning style preferences? How will you strengthen your less preferred learning style? How can you use your preferred learning styles to make the most out of college? I discovered that I learn more when I am engaged in an activity. Long lectures bores me and reading abstract ideas are often hard to relate. Unlike in activities where I can experience the application of the lesson which I can often learn well and remember. In classroom expectations, we are merely graded and are expected to pass. If we fail, we may retake the test or class and there are usually make up class or we can repeat the subject. There is also no life altering consequences in the classroom. In actual job expectations, a professional is expected to do the job