Going Green Essay

Our condition is deteriorating step by step. It’s getting increasingly hard for our families to remain solid with all the terrible things we are around consistently. We are influenced by our condition, and more individuals are getting more diseased and more wiped out. This could influence our families and our future one day. The administration has been making answers for take care of this issue in the earth. Going â€Å"green† is maturing into a national marvel, where apparel shops are sacking your natural shirts into biodegradable shopping packs. This gets powerful in different regions in the Philippines. One model is the Tagaytay City. They are presently against the utilization of plastics. Since the earth has been contaminated because of the consistent consuming of non-biodegradable materials, the utilization of plastics has been kept away from. They have created eco-sacks that will be utilized by the buyers rather than the customary plastic packs utilized during the past occasions. This standard has been executed in better places and soon, the nation will truly be â€Å"NO TO PLASTIC!† With that, we can truly say that it’s increasingly fun in the Philippines! There can be an answer in helping our condition become better. We would all be able to spare the Mother Earth. On the off chance that we connect with individuals who don’t care about our condition, we could change their perspective of things. We could reveal to them how terrible things are in our reality and that could change what their forthcoming on things. Let us discipline them. Leave us alone participative as the world practices environmental awareness. Peruse more: Essay About Tourism in the Philippines

Supply chain Technologies Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Gracefully chain Technologies - Case Study Example The U.K. high road style industry is a mind boggling business with an expected 44.5 billion in yearly incomes (Barlow, 2006). It remembers a wide scope of ventures for the attire, footwear, home materials, and frill markets, the maximum and rebate retailers, and configuration source and selling organizations. Some have their own assembling offices while others redistribute creation however hold authority over pieces of the creation procedure. Ruling the exceptionally serious UK design advertise is Marks and Spencer, trailed by rebate style authority brands, for example, Primark and TK Maxx, all rivaling Burberry, Italy's Prada, Chloe (France), Hugo Boss (Germany), and Donna Karan (U.S.). Design and attire fabricating has nearly vanished in the U.K. because of modest imports from China, which has in like manner formed into an assembling base for the set up worldwide brands. U.K. fabricating is centered around pro style garments and extravagance items, generally for well off clients in created nations. The business is set apart by the incorporation of producers and retailers, with the main three U.K. style retailers - M&S, Next, and Arcadia - remaining vertically coordinated, creating and retailing their own brands. The other high road design brands incline toward expert retailers, redistributing their creation in various nations and sending the completed items to the U.K. The business keeps on being driven by retailers as opposed to makers and set apart by the developing polarization among discounters and the maximum retailers. The profoundly serious nature of the business will keep on heightening. The maximum retailers need to benefit from youthful shopper interest for unmistakable plans, quality materials, and individual styles sold as quick design with things offered temporarily before new styles are discharged (Doshi, 2006). The business' operational necessities have changed over the most recent twenty years, since high road design houses sourced the greater part of their crude materials from U.K. material makers. These were then changed by U.K. architects, most with their own creation offices, into wearable clothing or frill for household and fare deals. Under this conventional framework, high road style houses contended based on structures, quality brand picture, and profitability and had the option to order higher edges. Be that as it may, with the ascent of worldwide creation communities in Asia and Latin America, for materials as well as for completed top notch clothing, most high road style houses are being crushed towards the higher worth included plan and brand promoting exercises and feeling more noteworthy strain to redistribute creation and improve operational administration efficiencies. Beside the developing intensity of purchasers, cost limiting weights, and configuration copyright issues, the industry faces the accompanying significant activities the executives issues: 1) multifaceted nature of the flexibly chain; 2) speed to item dispatch and conveyance; 3) dealing with the item blend; 4) stock control upkeep; and 5) quick evolving advancements. Carriers The carrier business comprises of a wide scope of organizations, from those with a solitary plane bringing mail or freight through full-administration universal aircrafts working several planes of different kinds. These organizations

just another manic wednesday

just another manic wednesday i really loved joons everyday post, so here is my own unnecessarily detailed day! watch as i stumble my way through like sixteen hours without ever leaving a ~0.04 km^2 area. dis boi long, so buckle up (and feel free to skim, if youre into that). Location: East Campus Although this image is small, if you look in the bottom left corner youll see a scale: the lines are 30m, or 100ft. 6.02 am: i wake up abruptly from a dream in which i miss my flight home.01 im leaving in eight days, next thursday, and damn am i ready to be home although i should be trying to get back to sleep, instead i start thinking about all the stuff i have to do to get ready to leave for the summer. as i do, tentative lines from a poem pop into my head. and a few more, and a few more. 6.05 am: i actually open my eyes02 the morning light comes in bright blue around the edges of my windowshade, and my room is painted blue; i feel deliciously underwater. in order to write down the poem on the paper i keep by my bed. here it is, scanned, below. (please keep in mind: it wasnt light enough to actually see the paper and i had just woken up. this is like a zeroth draft) 6.17 am ??: i try and fail to go back to sleep. ?? 9.24 am: i actually go back to sleep. my roommates alarm wakes me, but i was getting up in six minutes anyway. 9.24 9.35 am: i check my email and catch up on MITConfessions. 9.35 9.45 am: i reluctantly get out of bed, debate showering and decide to do it tonight, use the bathroom, and throw on some clothes. 9.45 9.57 am: i walk over to the kitchen03 every floor in east campus has its own communal kitchen, fridges, stoves, and all and eat my traditional weekday breakfast of almond milk and applesauce. Location: Building 26 9.57 am: i go to 6.009 recitation to get my checkoff.04 lots of lab classes will have you work independently, then explain your work to a TA or LA (lab assistant) to receive full points. i am number 16 in the queue, but i quickly jump to the top; no clue who changed their minds. despite technical issue strugs, i get the checkoff! its my last one for this class (today is the last day that any assignments can be due, since classes end tomorrow). 10.15 10.58 am: normally there would be an actual recitation being held during this time, so now i dont really know what to do with myself; i only woke up for 10 am because i was worried the checkoff queue would be long. i start writing this blog post and help out a friend, also at recitation, who hasnt finished the lab yet. Location: Stata Center right after i made this one, i realized my class is actually over a little to the right, so its moved in the other images. shhh ?? 10.58 am 12.25 pm: i walk over to my linguistics class, 24.9000. its our last meeting and im really sad ive had so much fun in this class! today our topic is how languages change over time, and oh boy do i nerd out about etymology (which was one of my fave topics in high school). 12.25 pm: right next to my class is the stata cafe.05 its basically a miniature dining hall -- it has tons of food options and is usually packed during lunch, since the closest actual dining hall is fifteen minutes walk away. i pick up my usual, their vegan06 im not vegan, but i am lactose intolerant, and i swear to god EVERY other food they sell is covered in cheese indian food. Location: Building 26 12.28 12.55 pm: my friend from linguistics has also picked up lunch at stata; we walk over to the Banana Lounge07 this is new in the past couple years -- a student government committee, UA innovation, spearheaded a student lounge with places to work and sleep, and which is always in stock with bananas. there are honestly very few good study spaces on this side of campus, so its always well-used. in 26 to eat. 12.57 1.56 pm: im back in 26-100, where my 6.009 recitation was, for 18.03 lecture. like linguistics, this is our last lecture, but im a little less sad about this: i love the content of this class, but i dont always feel that its being well taught. towards the end of the semester ive started zoning out more than i should in lecture. 1.57 2.54 pm: i have a UROP meeting at 3 in stata, so i dont want to head all the way08 when you spend all your time in one place, five hundred meters starts to seem a lot more like a trek home just yet. i go back to the banana lounge to update this post, read facebook, and contemplate whether i should study for my test tomorrow09 my last one before finals! im so close to release asdjfsldf or take a nap. in fact, it turns out im too tired to have willpower, so instead i just hang around on the internet for twenty minutes, then do a few practice problems for my physics exam next week. shrug emoji Location: Stata Center 2.58 3.15 pm: my UROP meeting is quite short! the grad student i work with and i mostly prep for the longer meeting we have tomorrow with our PI. this is good, because its freakin cold in there, for some reason. i head home to snuggle under some blankets until my next meeting (also for my UROP, also in Stata). on my way back, i spot some people selling tshirts that are a very pretty red and look soft! i am now the new owner of: Location: East Campus 3.17 4.46 pm: even my room is cold :( but two blankets and a soft couch helps! i update this post and do a bunch more physics practice problems. notice that i have not yet studied for the test tomorrow? i am scared to. i tell myself that if i finish all my other work first, then i will be able to tackle it unfettered. thinking face Location: Stata Center 4.46 5.35 pm: back over to stata for another UROP meeting! (i take a different, more indoors route, because i am cold.) i tell my supervisor about how i have not been able to solve the problem i was given at all and the code base is not doing what i think it should be doing. my supervisor tells me that she also does not know how to solve this problem and thinks the code base, which i didnt write, is just borked. i am extremely comforted (and wish i had spent a little less time near tears trying to fix this). Location: East Campus 5.40 7.18 pm: and with that last meeting, im home for the day?? everything gets a lot simpler now that i can work on my own schedule. on my way home, i stop to take a couple pretty photos! yay for spring :) i plop down on my couch and finish off the physics problems10 and surf the internet, and listen to music with my roommate... :D i am very happy, because this represents most of my studying for that exam and now i can put it behind me for a while. 7.18 8.05 pm: then i get hungry. i made rice pilaf yesterday and had leftovers, plus i froze a big batch of curry a while ago; i make liberal use of the microwave to cook a yummy dinner. it is The Dinner Hour, so the kitchen and lounge are full of people! we hang out. it is fun. 8.05 9.57 pm: i finally begin to study, somewhat frantically, for my test. it is Latin translation; I have 60 lines of poetry left, plus reviewing the other 200+ lines ive already done. 9.57 pm: i finish translating all 60 lines!!!! i feel glorious. especially since HouseComm11 east campus has a biweekly house meeting, attended by the exec, representatives from each of the ten floors, and any other resident who wants to go. is at 10. 10.05 11 pm: the floor that is in charge of snacks brought oreos AND fresh fruit. i am delighted, thank you 41w!! we discuss changes to our rooming process and elect a new secretary. 11 midnight: i intend to keep reviewing for my test, and i kinda do that, but also wordpress takes a long-ass time to upload images, so really i just finish off this post. overall, this was not my most productive of days, but thats OK, because i didnt have too much to do! plus, by this point in the semester im pretty burned out, so i try not to judge myself too harshly. today i walked a paltry 4,500 steps, but thats also OK, because wednesday isnt one of my workout days. (although theres a gym in stata, so if it was, i wouldnt even have to break out of my 0.04 km^2 box!) midnight: bedtime at last! i need to wake up at 9.30 for a meeting, and it takes me like 20 minutes to get ready for bed, and like another 30 to fall asleep, and i need more than eight hours of sleep to feel rested (thanks body .) and so, about four hours earlier than everyone else i live with, i go to bed. good night and sweet dreams, everybody 3 Post Tagged #A Day In The Life Of #East Campus i'm leaving in eight days, next thursday, and damn am i ready to be home back to text ? the morning light comes in bright blue around the edges of my windowshade, and my room is painted blue; i feel deliciously underwater. back to text ? every floor in east campus has its own communal kitchen, fridges, stoves, and all back to text ? lots of lab classes will have you work independently, then explain your work to a TA or LA (lab assistant) to receive full points. back to text ? it's basically a miniature dining hall -- it has tons of food options and is usually packed during lunch, since the closest actual dining hall is fifteen minutes' walk away. back to text ? i'm not vegan, but i am lactose intolerant, and i swear to god EVERY other food they sell is covered in cheese back to text ? this is new in the past couple years -- a student government committee, UA innovation, spearheaded a student lounge with places to work and sleep, and which is always in stock with bananas. there are honestly very few good study spaces on this side of campus, so it's always well-used. back to text ? when you spend all your time in one place, five hundred meters starts to seem a lot more like a trek back to text ? my last one before finals! i'm so close to release asdjfsldf back to text ? and surf the internet, and listen to music with my roommate... back to text ? east campus has a biweekly house meeting, attended by the exec, representatives from each of the ten floors, and any other resident who wants to go. back to text ?

A Comparison of Three Advertisements Essay - 683 Words

A Comparison of Three Advertisements The word Media is a term for information or messages conveyed by diferent channels (means) to an audience. Examples of media types are music, news, radio etc. A symbol is a picture of something eg: a cross. A denotation is what you actuallly see. A connotation however is the hidden meaning or sub text of a symbol. The anchor ties the picture down, comfirms the message or adds to the idea of something. A stereotype suggests a typical image of people that the audience recognises. Soft focus might imply romance, olden days and femininity. I will be analysing three adverts.†¦show more content†¦It shows a wealthly city street, with the kind of victoran architecture you may see in an exclusive shopping street like in London. It gives the impression of wealth, reinforced by the price of the shoe which we see in the anchor for ( £350). The second jeep advert also has an area which is in focus and a area which is blurred. This time the background is blurred and the car is in focus. The jeep is head on to the camera and this suggests power, strenght and confidence. The jeep looks like it is going fast through the water because of the water splashing everywhere and the detailed droplets in the air. Adverts lay things out well. They use specail techniques to catch our eye and to make us read the adverts. On the first advert they use the effect of 3 new cars on a white background. There is a box under each of the cars with the price and the model of the car. That is the bottom 40%. The are parked, facing the camera head on. This makes the cars look big and strong (exaggerated perspective). The brand names of all these cars are at the bottom of the page. There is a flag pole which shows authority, importance, tradition etc. On the car there are five spoked alloys which suggest power, speed, eye catchy, sporty, stylish etc. the car is a silvery colour and it stands out well fromShow MoreRelatedSocietal Standards of Feminine Beauty Essay783 Words   |  4 Pagestelevision and in advertisements are well below what is considered normal for American women. â€Å"The average American woman is 5’4† tall and weighs 140 pounds, while the average American models is 5†™ 11† tall and weighs 117 pounds. Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women† (Being Truly Beautiful). Research conducted by Westminster College provides factual evidence that three theories are primarily responsible for the negative mindset of the average American women in comparison to the averageRead MoreSocial And Social Impact On Social Media1167 Words   |  5 Pagesstudy suggests that social comparison orientation (SCO) produces negative outcomes is associated with social media use. They believe that people high in SCO are very aware of people around them and thus are more drawn to social media because the expansive networks allow individuals to connect to a wide variety of others, and we can learn a large amount about these people from their profiles. Also, social networking sites allow for upward social comparison, or the comparison of yourself with those whoRead MoreThe Advertisements Made By Oral B, Colgate, And Crest Use Color1332 Words   |  6 PagesToothpaste advertisements made by Oral-B, Colgate, and Crest use color, movement, and appeals in various ways in order to have specific effects on their intended audience. These three ads, all in print or video format, aim to garner positive reactions from their viewers and to have a memorable effect. By formating their advertisements in differing styles, these agencies are attempting to ensure that their product will be impactful and successful in the marketing industry. These three advertisements utilizeRead MoreThe Body Image And Advertisements1630 Words   |  7 PagesBody Image and Advertisements In roughly three decades, the number of advertisement exposed to consumers daily went from 500 in the 1970’s to as many as 5000 today (Johnson, 2006). 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To achieve this goal, advertisers use an assortmentRead MoreMedia And Stereotyping On Gender Stereotypes1395 Words   |  6 PagesSeveral advertisements in the set of stimuli for these interviews inspired reactions which resonate with this courtship theme. All three informants became emotionally involved in these ads, able to self-project to a tremendous degree and to create imaginative stories about the people portrayed in the ads. Also importantly, the role portrayals of women in these ads were never seen by any of the informants as sexist or inappropriate, contrary to the researcher s own introspection. Dominant CultureRead MoreThe Effects Of Social Media On Young Girls And Women Alike1474 Words   |  6 Pagesthese representations of the â€Å"ideal female body image†. Just as life matures as stated previously, so does technology. In todays’ affluent media crazed culture technology (e.g., social media) is everywhere and has replaced the outdated source of advertisement through television and magazine ads and has now capitalized on the use of this technology. In todays’ society the reading of magazine has been replaced with social networks such as; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Snapchat, Tumblr etc. consequentlyRead MoreFemale Vs. Male Answers1401 Words   |  6 Pagesof medias nowadays there are scantily clad men/women everywhere. Covers with photoshopped images of â€Å"perfection† have now become the new norm and society is feeling the pressures to keep up. The average American walks past and sees about 3,000 advertisements per day, which can do a num ber on healthy everyday individuals let alone people who are considered â€Å"overweight† by society’s standards. This research paper will talk about the results of a body image survey, comparing and contrasting why femaleRead MoreMarketing Analysis : Pull Out Two Similar Products Owned By Different Companies1541 Words   |  7 Pagesways they were advertised and the significance of the single commercial. Advertisements in Scribner’s magazine had done a great job playing with classes and people’s desire. The early twenties century is all about social class and living the luxury life like there’s no tomorrow and those advertisement perfectly manipulate middle class’s desire to be in the category of the wealthiest. In the following essay, I will pull out three different sets of examples to prove my statements. First, I will take similarRead MoreAnalysis Of Pantene s Sorry, Not Sorry1591 Words   |  7 Pages Advertisements with women as the target audience are now having to cater towards the new values and ideals held by modern women. Pantene’s ‘Sorry, Not Sorry’ campaign engages with themes of empowerment by paralleling unempowered imagery with empowered imagery. Stereotypes of women with little diversity can be seen within Pantene s commercials. This suggests that though advertisements are making a shift towards more feminist based ideals through the portrayal of strong women there is still conflict

Story Of Henry Box Brown - 1662 Words

story of Henry â€Å"Box† Brown. A slave from Virginia, Henry managed to escape in a sealed shipping container heading north to an abolitionist safe house Philadelphia. There is also the case of Samuel Burris, a free black man in Delaware involved in the trade, who was caught aiding runaway slaves. As punishment in his state, he would be auctioned back off into slavery. Fortunately for Burris, one of his white associates impersonated a buyer at the auction to technically win back his freedom (Underground Railroad – Whisper†¦). While many unrecorded successful attempts have been undoubtedly lost to history, the ones that survived highlight the intelligence and craftiness of both the slaves and their allies. However, there were great risks. While the northern Untied States was a popular destination for many runaways, it was not the only one. Until the early 1820’s when Spain ceded Florida to the United States, many slaves would take the southern passage to the sunshine state. With the Spanish occupation force primarily focused on developing military outpost, there was a need for military troops. In exchange for freedom, the blacks would have to pledge their loyalty to the Spanish crown. The â€Å"Spanish governor Diego de Quiroga y Losada welcomed them and refused to return them to their English owners, maintaining that they were religious refugees and even offering to buy them† (White 77). In 1693, the Spanish King Charles II â€Å"issued a royal proclamation granting liberty to allShow MoreRelatedA Farewell To Arms And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson1392 Words   |  6 Pagesnovel â€Å"A Farewell to Arms† by Ernest Hemingway and the short story â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson, ther e are distinct similarities and differences in the setting and symbolism used throughout. In order to see what the authors are trying to say, from time to time, you have to look deeper into the facts in the writing and analyze. Both of these stories are extremely stimulating, while still being heartbreaking. The styles that these stories have make you as a reader see things differently in your ownRead MoreThe Gift of the Magi1271 Words   |  6 Pages The story explained how important it is to be willing to sacrifice for the one that you love. No matter what the circumstance, if a person can unselfishly give of themselves for another, they can experience life in a whole new way. Many people give what is not important to them and makes no difference. I think the term â€Å"it’s the thought that counts† has been used to justify just giving anything to a person without actually put your heart and soul into the gift you are giving. O. Henry usesRead MoreThe Undergrou nd Railroad Was Not Only A Significant Part Of Our Nation s History1611 Words   |  7 Pagesthe journey of slaves from the south towards freedom and promise that was held up North (Gara, 34). 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The story The Gift of the Magi follows the story of a young couple who are madly in love but sufferingRead MoreThe Life Of Harriet Tubman And Frederick Douglass1224 Words   |  5 Pageshis fiance. Frederick then changed his name from Bailey to Douglass. He was finally a freeman. This is when Douglass became a follower of the American Anti-Slavery Society and eventually a big part of it. As he traveled, he gave lectures about his story of how he escaped slavery and he encouraged many people to help the abolitionist movement. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass were different in so many w ays yet they were both able to contribute tremensly to the on going cause of the UndergroundRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Kindred 1477 Words   |  6 Pagesthe novel Kindred, it shows a woman, named Dana, going back into the past to be part of the slave society and helping out a friend from the past. Since Dana is a black lady, she is forced to work and is treated like a normal slave is treated. As the story progresses, Dana sees how the world is messed up because of racism and how people treat each other. This novel brings to live the historical reality of American slavery by putting a character into the society of slaves and letting her find out howRead MoreLiterary Elements In The Gift Of The Magi2148 Words   |  9 Pagesto elevate the story. â€Å"The Gift of the Magi† by O. Henry and â€Å"The Necklace† by Guy de Maupassant, both use many literary elements to give their writing more depth. â€Å"The Gift of the Magi† uses irony throughout the story when Della and her husband, Jim, both do not have enough money to buy each other gifts for Christmas. â€Å"The Necklace† uses a lot of detail to show what Madame (Mme.) Loisel dreams of at the beginning of the short story. â€Å"The Necklace† is one of the many short stories that use literaryRead More Edward Theodore Gein - Americas Most Infamous Murderer Essay1425 Words   |  6 Pagesin their conclusion of his insanity. 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One can only surmise, the writers have deliberately played down Theseus’ origins for the movie’s sake. An audience loves an underdogRead MoreAnalysis Of The Lock Of The Old Two Story House1709 Words   |  7 Pagesbelieve this is really going to be our new place†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Brielle admitted, as she turned the key in the lock of the old two story house. It was a bright sunny day in the middle of June in central Iowa, and the twin sisters, Brielle and Audrey, were getting their dream come true. Since they were little they had been dreaming of getting to live in their grandparent’s house. The old two-story white house held so many memories. Today, it looked different than it had when they were young. The white paint was

Why Software Should Be Free Free Essays

Why Software Should Be Free by Richard Stallman (Version of April 24, 1992) Introduction The existence of software inevitably raises the question of how decisions about its use should be made. For example, suppose one individual who has a copy of a program meets another who would like a copy. It is possible for them to copy the program; who should decide whether this is done? The individuals involved? Or another party, called the â€Å"owner†? Software developers typically consider these questions on the assumption that the criterion for the answer is to maximize developers’ profits. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Software Should Be Free or any similar topic only for you Order Now The political power of business has led to the government adoption of both this criterion and the answer proposed by the developers: that the program has an owner, typically a corporation associated with its development. I would like to consider the same question using a different criterion: the prosperity and freedom of the public in general. This answer cannot be decided by current law–the law should conform to ethics, not the other way around. Nor does current practice decide this question, although it may suggest possible answers. The only way to judge is to see who is helped and who is hurt by recognizing owners of software, why, and how much. In other words, we should perform a cost-benefit analysis on behalf of society as a whole, taking account of individual freedom as well as production of material goods. In this essay, I will describe the effects of having owners, and show that the results are detrimental. My conclusion is that programmers have the duty to encourage others to share, redistribute, study, and improve the software we write: in other words, to write â€Å"free† software. 1) How Owners Justify Their Power Those who benefit from the current system where programs are property offer two arguments in support of their claims to own programs: the emotional argument and the economic argument. The emotional argument goes like this: â€Å"I put my sweat, my heart, my soul into this program. It comes from me, it’s mine! † This argument does not require serious refutation. The feeli ng of attachment is one that programmers can cultivate when it suits them; it is not inevitable. Consider, for example, how willingly the same programmers sually sign over all rights to a large corporation for a salary; the emotional attachment mysteriously vanishes. By contrast, consider the great artists and artisans of medieval times, who didn’t even sign their names to their work. To them, the name of the artist was not important. What mattered was that the work was done–and the purpose it would serve. This view prevailed for hundreds of years. The economic argument goes like this: â€Å"I want to get rich (usually described inaccurately as `making a living’), and if you don’t allow me to get rich by programming, then I won’t program. Everyone else is like me, so nobody will ever program. And then you’ll be stuck with no programs at all! † This threat is usually veiled as friendly advice from the wise. I’ll explain later why this threat is a bluff. First I want to address an implicit assumption that is more visible in another formulation of the argument. This formulation starts by comparing the social utility of a proprietary program with that of no program, and then concludes that proprietary software development is, on the whole, beneficial, and should be encouraged. The fallacy here is in comparing only two outcomes–proprietary software vs. no software–and assuming there are no other possibilities. Given a system of software copyright, software development is usually linked with the existence of an owner who controls the software’s use. As long as this linkage exists, we are often faced with the choice of proprietary software or none. However, this linkage is not inherent or inevitable; it is a consequence of the specific social/legal policy decision that we are questioning: the decision to have owners. To formulate the choice as between proprietary software vs. no software is begging the question. The Argument against Having Owners The question at hand is, â€Å"Should development of software be linked with having owners to restrict the use of it? † In order to decide this, we have to judge the effect on society of each of those two activities independently: the effect of developing the software (regardless of its terms of distribution), and the effect of restricting its use (assuming the software has been developed). If one of these activities is helpful and the other is harmful, we would be better off dropping the linkage and doing only the helpful one. To put it another way, if restricting the distribution of a program already developed is harmful to society overall, then an ethical software developer will reject the option of doing so. To determine the effect of restricting sharing, we need to compare the value to society of a restricted (i. e. , proprietary) program with that of the same program, available to everyone. This means comparing two possible worlds. This analysis also addresses the simple counterargument sometimes made that â€Å"the benefit to the neighbor of giving him or her a copy of a program is cancelled by the harm done to the owner. † This counterargument assumes that the harm and the benefit are equal in magnitude. The analysis involves comparing these magnitudes, and shows that the benefit is much greater. To elucidate this argument, let’s apply it in another area: road construction. It would be possible to fund the construction of all roads with tolls. This would entail having toll booths at all street corners. Such a system would provide a great incentive to improve roads. It would also have the virtue of causing the users of any given road to pay for that road. However, a toll booth is an artificial obstruction to smooth driving-artificial, because it is not a consequence of how roads or cars work. Comparing free roads and toll roads by their usefulness, we find that (all else being equal) roads without toll booths are cheaper to construct, cheaper to run, safer, and more efficient to use. 2) In a poor country, tolls may make the roads unavailable to many citizens. The roads without toll booths thus offer more benefit to society at less cost; they are preferable for society. Therefore, society should choose to fund roads in another way, not by means of toll booths. Use of roads, once built, should be free. When the advocates of toll booths propose them as merely a way of raising funds, they distort the choice that is available. T oll booths do raise funds, but they do something else as well: in effect, they degrade the road. The toll road is not as good as the free road; giving us more or technically superior roads may not be an improvement if this means substituting toll roads for free roads. Of course, the construction of a free road does cost money, which the public must somehow pay. However, this does not imply the inevitability of toll booths. We who must in either case pay will get more value for our money by buying a free road. I am not saying that a toll road is worse than no road at all. That would be true if the toll were so great that hardly anyone used the road–but this is an unlikely policy for a toll collector. However, as long as the toll booths cause significant waste and inconvenience, it is better to raise the funds in a less obstructive fashion. To apply the same argument to software development, I will now show that having â€Å"toll booths† for useful software programs costs society dearly: it makes the programs more expensive to construct, more expensive to distribute, and less satisfying and efficient to use. It will follow that program construction should be encouraged in some other way. Then I will go on to explain other methods of encouraging and (to the extent actually necessary) funding software development. The Harm Done by Obstructing Software Consider for a moment that a program has been developed, and any necessary payments for its development have been made; now society must choose either to make it proprietary or allow free sharing and use. Assume that the existence of the program and its availability is a desirable thing. (3) Restrictions on the distribution and modification of the program cannot facilitate its use. They can only interfere. So the effect can only be negative. But how much? And what kind? Three different levels of material harm come from such obstruction: †¢ †¢ †¢ Fewer people use the program. None of the users can adapt or fix the program. Other developers cannot learn from the program, or base new work on it. Each level of material harm has a concomitant form of psychosocial harm. This refers to the effect that people’s decisions have on their subsequent feelings, attitudes, and predispositions. These changes in people’s ways of thinking will then have a further effect on their relationships with their fellow citizens, and can have material consequences. The three levels of material harm waste part of the value that the program could contribute, but they cannot reduce it to zero. If they waste nearly all the value of the program, then writing the program harms society by at most the effort that went into writing the program. Arguably a program that is profitable to sell must provide some net direct material benefit. However, taking account of the concomitant psychosocial harm, there is no limit to the harm that proprietary software development can do. Obstructing Use of Programs The first level of harm impedes the simple use of a program. A copy of a program has nearly zero marginal cost (and you can pay this cost by doing the work yourself), so in a free market, it would have nearly zero price. A license fee is a significant disincentive to use the program. If a widely-useful program is proprietary, far fewer people will use it. It is easy to show that the total contribution of a program to society is reduced by assigning an owner to it. Each potential user of the program, faced with the need to pay to use it, may choose to pay, or may forego use of the program. When a user chooses to pay, this is a zero-sum transfer of wealth between two parties. But each time someone chooses to forego use of the program, this harms that person without benefitting anyone. The sum of negative numbers and zeros must be negative. But this does not reduce the amount of work it takes to develop the program. As a result, the efficiency of the whole process, in delivered user satisfaction per hour of work, is reduced. This reflects a crucial difference between copies of programs and cars, chairs, or sandwiches. There is no copying machine for material objects outside of science fiction. But programs are easy to copy; anyone can produce as many copies as are wanted, with very little effort. This isn’t true for material objects because matter is conserved: each new copy has to be built from raw materials in the same way that the first copy was built. With material objects, a disincentive to use them makes sense, because fewer objects bought means less raw material and work needed to make them. It’s true that there is usually also a startup cost, a development cost, which is spread over the production run. But as long as the marginal cost of production is significant, adding a share of the development cost does not make a qualitative difference. And it does not require restrictions on the freedom of ordinary users. However, imposing a price on something that would otherwise be free is a qualitative change. A centrally-imposed fee for software distribution becomes a powerful disincentive. What’s more, central production as now practiced is inefficient even as a means of delivering copies of software. This system involves enclosing physical disks or tapes in superfluous packaging, shipping large numbers of them around the world, and storing them for sale. This cost is presented as an expense of doing business; in truth, it is part of the waste caused by having owners. Damaging Social Cohesion Suppose that both you and your neighbor would find it useful to run a certain program. In ethical concern for your neighbor, you should feel that proper handling of the situation will enable both of you to use it. A proposal to permit only one of you to use the program, while restraining the other, is divisive; neither you nor your neighbor should find it acceptable. Signing a typical software license agreement means betraying your neighbor: â€Å"I promise to deprive my neighbor of this program so that I can have a copy for myself. † People who make such choices feel internal psychological pressure to justify them, by downgrading the importance of helping one’s neighbors–thus public spirit suffers. This is psychosocial harm associated with the material harm of discouraging use of the program. Many users unconsciously recognize the wrong of refusing to share, so they decide to ignore the licenses and laws, and share programs anyway. But they often feel guilty about doing so. They know that they must break the laws in order to be good neighbors, but they still consider the laws authoritative, and they conclude that being a good neighbor (which they are) is naughty or shameful. That is also a kind of psychosocial harm, but one can escape it by deciding that these licenses and laws have no moral force. Programmers also suffer psychosocial harm knowing that many users will not be allowed to use their work. This leads to an attitude of cynicism or denial. A programmer may describe enthusiastically the work that he finds technically exciting; then when asked, â€Å"Will I be permitted to use it? †, his face falls, and he admits the answer is no. To avoid feeling discouraged, he either ignores this fact most of the time or adopts a cynical stance designed to minimize the importance of it. Since the age of Reagan, the greatest scarcity in the United States is not technical innovation, but rather the willingness to work together for the public good. It makes no sense to encourage the former at the expense of the latter. Obstructing Custom Adaptation of Programs The second level of material harm is the inability to adapt programs. The ease of modification of software is one of its great advantages over older technology. But most commercially available software isn’t available for modification, even after you buy it. It’s available for you to take it or leave it, as a black box–that is all. A program that you can run consists of a series of numbers whose meaning is obscure. No one, not even a good programmer, can easily change the numbers o make the program do something different. Programmers normally work with the â€Å"source code† for a program, which is written in a programming language such as Fortran or C. It uses names to designate the data being used and the parts of the program, and it represents operations with symbols such as `+’ for addition and `-‘ for subtraction. It is design ed to help programmers read and change programs. Here is an example; a program to calculate the distance between two points in a plane: float distance (p0, p1) struct point p0, p1; { float xdist = p1. x – p0. x; float ydist = p1. y – p0. ; return sqrt (xdist * xdist + ydist * ydist); } Here is the same program in executable form, on the computer I normally use: 1314258944 1411907592 -234880989 1644167167 572518958 -232267772 -231844736 -234879837 -3214848 -803143692 -231844864 2159150 -234879966 1090581031 1314803317 1634862 1420296208 -232295424 1962942495 Source code is useful (at least potentially) to every user of a program. But most users are not allowed to have copies of the source code. Usually the source code for a proprietary program is kept secret by the owner, lest anybody else learn something from it. Users receive only the files of incomprehensible numbers that the computer will execute. This means that only the program’s owner can change the program. A friend once told me of working as a programmer in a bank for about six months, writing a program similar to something that was commercially available. She believed that if she could have gotten source code for that commercially available program, it could easily have been adapted to their needs. The bank was willing to pay for this, but was not permitted to–the source code was a secret. So she had to do six months of make-work, work that counts in the GNP but was actually waste. The MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab (AI Lab) received a graphics printer as a gift from Xerox around 1977. It was run by free software to which we added many convenient features. For example, the software would notify a user immediately on completion of a print job. Whenever the printer had trouble, such as a paper jam or running out of paper, the software would immediately notify all users who had print jobs queued. These features facilitated smooth operation. Later Xerox gave the AI Lab a newer, faster printer, one of the first laser printers. It was driven by proprietary software that ran in a separate dedicated computer, so we couldn’t add any of our favorite features. We could arrange to send a notification when a print job was sent to the dedicated computer, but not when the job was actually printed (and the delay was usually considerable). There was no way to find out when the job was actually printed; you could only guess. And no one was informed when there was a paper jam, so the printer often went for an hour without being fixed. The system programmers at the AI Lab were capable of fixing such problems, probably as capable as the original authors of the program. Xerox was uninterested in fixing them, and chose to prevent us, so we were forced to accept the problems. They were never fixed. Most good programmers have experienced this frustration. The bank could afford to solve the problem by writing a new program from scratch, but a typical user, no matter how skilled, can only give up. Giving up causes psychosocial harm–to the spirit of self-reliance. It is demoralizing to live in a house that you cannot rearrange to suit your needs. It leads to resignation and discouragement, which can spread to affect other aspects of one’s life. People who feel this way are unhappy and do not do good work. Imagine what it would be like if recipes were hoarded in the same fashion as software. You might say, â€Å"How do I change this recipe to take out the salt? † and the great chef would respond, â€Å"How dare you insult my recipe, the child of my brain and my palate, by trying to tamper with it? You don’t have the judgment to change my recipe and make it work right! † â€Å"But my doctor says I’m not supposed to eat salt! What can I do? Will you take out the salt for me? ‘ â€Å"I would be glad to do that; my fee is only $50,000. † Since the owner has a monopoly on changes, the fee tends to be large. â€Å"However, right now I don’t have time. I am busy with a commission to design a new recipe for ship’s biscuit for the Navy Department. I might get around to you in about two years. † Obstructing Software Development The third level of material harm affects software development. Software development used to be an evolutionary process, where a person would take an existing program and rewrite parts of it for one new feature, and then another person would rewrite parts to add nother feature; in some cases, this continued over a period of twenty years. Meanwhile, parts of the program would be â€Å"cannibalized† to form the beginnings of other programs. The existence of owners prevents this kind of evolution, making it necessary to start from scratch when developing a program. It also prevents new practitioners from studying existing programs to learn useful techniques or even how large programs can be structured. Owners also obstruct education. I have met bright students in computer science who have never seen the source code of a large program. They may be good at writing small programs, but they can’t begin to learn the different skills of writing large ones if they can’t see how others have done it. In any intellectual field, one can reach greater heights by standing on the shoulders of others. But that is no longer generally allowed in the software field–you can only stand on the shoulders of the other people in your own company. The associated psychosocial harm affects the spirit of scientific cooperation, which used to be so strong that scientists would cooperate even when their countries were at war. In this spirit, Japanese oceanographers abandoning their lab on an island in the Pacific carefully preserved their work for the invading U. S. Marines, and left a note asking them to take good care of it. Conflict for profit has destroyed what international conflict spared. Nowadays scientists in many fields don’t publish enough in their papers to enable others to replicate the experiment. They publish only enough to let readers marvel at how much they were able to do. This is certainly true in computer science, where the source code for the programs reported on is usually secret. It Does Not Matter How Sharing Is Restricted I have been discussing the effects of preventing people from copying, changing, and building on a program. I have not specified how this obstruction is carried out, because that doesn’t affect the conclusion. Whether it is done by copy protection, or copyright, or licenses, or encryption, or ROM cards, or hardware serial numbers, if it succeeds in preventing use, it does harm. Users do consider some of these methods more obnoxious than others. I suggest that the methods most hated are those that accomplish their objective. Software Should be Free I have shown how ownership of a program–the power to restrict changing or copying it–is obstructive. Its negative effects are widespread and important. It follows that society shouldn’t have owners for programs. Another way to understand this is that what society needs is free software, and proprietary software is a poor substitute. Encouraging the substitute is not a rational way to get what we need. Vaclav Havel has advised us to â€Å"Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. ‘ A business making proprietary software stands a chance of success in its own narrow terms, but it is not what is good for society. Why People Will Develop Software If we eliminate copyright as a means of encouraging people to develop software, at first less software will be developed, but that software will be more useful. It is not clear whether the overall delivered user satisfaction will be less; but if it is , or if we wish to increase it anyway, there are other ways to encourage development, just as there are ways besides toll booths to raise money for streets. Before I talk about how that can be done, first I want to question how much artificial encouragement is truly necessary. Programming is Fun There are some lines of work that few will enter except for money; road construction, for example. There are other fields of study and art in which there is little chance to become rich, which people enter for their fascination or their perceived value to society. Examples include mathematical logic, classical music, and archaeology; and political organizing among working people. People compete, more sadly than bitterly, for the few funded positions available, none of which is funded very well. They may even pay for the chance to work in the field, if they can afford to. Such a field can transform itself overnight if it begins to offer the possibility of getting rich. When one worker gets rich, others demand the same opportunity. Soon all may demand large sums of money for doing what they used to do for pleasure. When another couple of years go by, everyone connected with the field will deride the idea that work would be done in the field without large financial returns. They will advise social planners to ensure that these returns are possible, prescribing special privileges, powers, and monopolies as necessary to do so. This change happened in the field of computer programming in the past decade. Fifteen years ago, there were articles on â€Å"computer addiction†: users were â€Å"onlining† and had hundred-dollar-a-week habits. It was generally understood that people frequently loved programming enough to break up their marriages. Today, it is generally understood that no one would program except for a high rate of pay. People have forgotten what they knew fifteen years ago. When it is true at a given time that most people will work in a certain field only for high pay, it need not remain true. The dynamic of change can run in reverse, if society provides an impetus. If we take away the possibility of great wealth, then after a while, when the people have readjusted their attitudes, they will once again be eager to work in the field for the joy of accomplishment. The question, â€Å"How can we pay programmers? † becomes an easier question when we realize that it’s not a matter of paying them a fortune. A mere living is easier to raise. Funding Free Software Institutions that pay programmers do not have to be software houses. Many other institutions already exist that can do this. Hardware manufacturers find it essential to support software development even if they cannot control the use of the software. In 1970, much of their software was free because they did not consider restricting it. Today, their increasing willingness to join consortiums shows their realization that owning the software is not what is really important for them. Universities conduct many programming projects. Today they often sell the results, but in the 1970s they did not. Is there any doubt that universities would develop free software if they were not allowed to sell software? These projects could be supported by the same government contracts and grants that now support proprietary software development. It is common today for university researchers to get grants to develop a system, develop it nearly to the point of completion and call that â€Å"finished†, and then start companies where they really finish the project and make it usable. Sometimes they declare the unfinished version â€Å"free†; if they are thoroughly corrupt, they instead get an exclusive license from the university. This is not a secret; it is openly admitted by everyone concerned. Yet if the researchers were not exposed to the temptation to do these things, they would still do their research. Programmers writing free software can make their living by selling services related to the software. I have been hired to port the GNU C compiler to new hardware, and to make user-interface extensions to GNU Emacs. (I offer these improvements to the public once they are done. I also teach classes for which I am paid. I am not alone in working this way; there is now a successful, growing corporation which does no other kind of work. Several other companies also provide commercial support for the free software of the GNU system. This is the beginning of the independent software support industry–an industry that could become quite large if free sof tware becomes prevalent. It provides users with an option generally unavailable for proprietary software, except to the very wealthy. New institutions such as the Free Software Foundation can also fund programmers. Most of the Foundation’s funds come from users buying tapes through the mail. The software on the tapes is free, which means that every user has the freedom to copy it and change it, but many nonetheless pay to get copies. (Recall that â€Å"free software† refers to freedom, not to price. ) Some users who already have a copy order tapes as a way of making a contribution they feel we deserve. The Foundation also receives sizable donations from computer manufacturers. The Free Software Foundation is a charity, and its income is spent on hiring as many programmers as possible. If it had been set up as a business, distributing the same free software to the public for the same fee, it would now provide a very good living for its founder. Because the Foundation is a charity, programmers often work for the Foundation for half of what they could make elsewhere. They do this because we are free of bureaucracy, and because they feel satisfaction in knowing that their work will not be obstructed from use. Most of all, they do it because programming is fun. In addition, volunteers have written many useful programs for us. (Even technical writers have begun to volunteer. This confirms that programming is among the most fascinating of all fields, along with music and art. We don’t have to fear that no one will want to program. What Do Users Owe to Developers? There is a good reason for users of software to feel a moral obligation to contribute to its support. Developers of free software are contributing to the users’ activities, and it is both fair and in the long-term interest of the users to give them funds to continue. However, this does not apply to proprietary software developers, since obstructionism deserves a punishment rather than reward. We thus have a paradox: the developer of useful software is entitled to the support of the users, but any attempt to turn this moral obligation into a requirement destroys the basis for the obligation. A developer can either deserve a reward or demand it, but not both. I believe that an ethical developer faced with this paradox must act so as to deserve the reward, but should also entreat the users for voluntary donations. Eventually the users will learn to support developers without coercion, just as they have learned to support public radio and television stations. What Is Software Productivity? If software were free, there would still be programmers, but perhaps fewer of them. Would this be bad for society? Not necessarily. Today the advanced nations have fewer farmers than in 1900, but we do not think this is bad for society, because the few deliver more food to the consumers than the many used to do. We call this improved productivity. Free software would require far fewer programmers to satisfy the demand, because of increased software productivity at all levels: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Wider use of each program that is developed. The ability to adapt existing programs for customization instead of starting from scratch. Better education of programmers. The elimination of duplicate development effort. Those who object to cooperation claiming it would result in the employment of fewer programmers are actually objecting to increased productivity. Yet these people usually accept the widely-held belief that the software industry needs increased productivity. How is this? â€Å"Software productivity† can mean two different things: the overall productivity of all software development, or the productivity of individual projects. Overall productivity is what society would like to improve, and the most straightforward way to do this is to eliminate the artificial obstacles to cooperation which reduce it. But researchers who study the field of â€Å"software productivity† focus only on the second, limited, sense of the term, where improvement requires difficult technological advances. Is Competition Inevitable? Is it inevitable that people will try to compete, to surpass their rivals in society? Perhaps it is. But competition itself is not harmful; the harmful thing is combat. There are many ways to compete. Competition can consist of trying to achieve ever more, to outdo what others have done. For example, in the old days, there was competition among programming wizards–competition for who could make the computer do the most amazing thing, or for who could make the shortest or fastest program for a given task. This kind of competition can benefit everyone, as long as the spirit of good sportsmanship is maintained. Constructive competition is enough competition to motivate people to great efforts. A number of people are competing to be the first to have visited all the countries on Earth; some even spend fortunes trying to do this. But they do not bribe ship captains to strand their rivals on desert islands. They are content to let the best person win. Competition becomes combat when the competitors begin trying to impede each other instead of advancing themselves–when â€Å"Let the best person win† gives way to â€Å"Let me win, best or not. † Proprietary software is harmful, not because it is a form of competition, but because it is a form of combat among the citizens of our society. Competition in business is not necessarily combat. For example, when two grocery stores compete, their entire effort is to improve their own operations, not to sabotage the rival. But this does not demonstrate a special commitment to business ethics; rather, there is little scope for combat in this line of business short of physical violence. Not all areas of business share this characteristic. Withholding information that could help everyone advance is a form of combat. Business ideology does not prepare people to resist the temptation to combat the competition. Some forms of combat have been banned with anti-trust laws, truth in advertising laws, and so on, but rather than generalizing this to a principled rejection of combat in general, executives invent other forms of combat which are not specifically prohibited. Society’s resources are squandered on the economic equivalent of factional civil war. â€Å"Why Don’t You Move to Russia? † In the United States, any advocate of other than the most extreme form of laissezfaire selfishness has often heard this accusation. For example, it is leveled against the supporters of a national health care system, such as is found in all the other industrialized nations of the free world. It is leveled against the advocates of public support for the arts, also universal in advanced nations. The idea that citizens have any obligation to the public good is identified in America with Communism. But how similar are these ideas? Communism as was practiced in the Soviet Union was a system of central control where all activity was regimented, supposedly for the common good, but actually for the sake of the members of the Communist party. And where copying equipment was closely guarded to prevent illegal copying. The American system of software copyright exercises central control over distribution of a program, and guards copying equipment with automatic copying-protection schemes to prevent illegal copying. By contrast, I am working to build a system where people are free to decide their own actions; in particular, free to help their neighbors, and free to alter and improve the tools which they use in their daily lives. A system based on voluntary cooperation and on decentralization. Thus, if we are to judge views by their resemblance to Russian Communism, it is the software owners who are the Communists. The Question of Premises I make the assumption in this paper that a user of software is no less important than an author, or even an author’s employer. In other words, their interests and needs have equal weight, when we decide which course of action is best. This premise is not universally accepted. Many maintain that an author’s employer is fundamentally more important than anyone else. They say, for example, that the purpose of having owners of software is to give the author’s employer the advantage he deserves–regardless of how this may affect the public. It is no use trying to prove or disprove these premises. Proof requires shared premises. So most of what I have to say is addressed only to those who share the premises I use, or at least are interested in what their consequences are. For those who believe that the owners are more important than everyone else, this paper is simply irrelevant. But why would a large number of Americans accept a premise that elevates certain people in importance above everyone else? Partly because of the belief that this premise is part of the legal traditions of American society. Some people feel that doubting the premise means challenging the basis of society. It is important for these people to know that this premise is not part of our legal tradition. It never has been. Thus, the Constitution says that the purpose of copyright is to â€Å"promote the progress of science and the useful arts. ‘ The Supreme Court has elaborated on this, stating in `Fox Film vs. Doyal’ that â€Å"The sole interest of the United States and the primary object in conferring the [copyright] monopoly lie in the general benefits derived by the public from the labors of authors. † We are not required to agree with the Constitution or th e Supreme Court. (At one time, they both condoned slavery. ) So their positions do not disprove the owner supremacy premise. But I hope that the awareness that this is a radical right-wing assumption rather than a traditionally recognized one will weaken its appeal. Conclusion We like to think that our society encourages helping your neighbor; but each time we reward someone for obstructionism, or admire them for the wealth they have gained in this way, we are sending the opposite message. Software hoarding is one form of our general willingness to disregard the welfare of society for personal gain. We can trace this disregard from Ronald Reagan to Jim Bakker, from Ivan Boesky to Exxon, from failing banks to failing schools. We can measure it with the size of the homeless population and the prison population. The antisocial spirit feeds on itself, because the more we see that other people will not help us, the more it seems futile to help them. Thus society decays into a jungle. If we don’t want to live in a jungle, we must change our attitudes. We must start sending the message that a good citizen is one who cooperates when appropriate, not one who is successful at taking from others. I hope that the free software movement will contribute to this: at least in one area, we will replace the jungle with a more efficient system which encourages and runs on voluntary cooperation. Footnotes 1. The word â€Å"free† in â€Å"free software† refers to freedom, not to price; the price paid for a copy of a free program may be zero, or small, or (rarely) quite large. 2. The issues of pollution and traffic congestion do not alter this conclusion. If we wish to make driving more expensive to discourage driving in general, it is disadvantageous to do this using toll booths, which contribute to both pollution and congestion. A tax on gasoline is much better. Likewise, a desire to enhance safety by limiting maximum speed is not relevant; a free-access road enhances the average speed by avoiding stops and delays, for any given speed limit. . One might regard a particular computer program as a harmful thing that should not be available at all, like the Lotus Marketplace database of personal information, which was withdrawn from sale due to public disapproval. Most of what I say does not apply to this case, but it makes little sense to argue for having an owner on the groun ds that the owner will make the program less available. The owner will not make it completely unavailable, as one would wish in the case of a program whose use is considered destructive. How to cite Why Software Should Be Free, Essay examples

Diversification - Corporate Governance and Firm Value in Small Markets

Question: Discuss about the Case Study for Diversification, Corporate Governance and Firm Value in Small Markets. Answer: Introduction The purpose of the following piece of project is to give a thorough explanation of the general responsibilities undertaken by the Chief Financial officer of a company. The responsibilities are generally accomplished with the view of maximizing the profit generating capacity of the firms. The various ways in which a CFO serves the company has been listed below and discussed briefly. The impact of the roles of the CFO of the company has also been discussed by the researcher. The main aim of the researcher is to find the ways in which the responsibilities undertaken by the CFO of a particular company can affect the ultimate objective of the same. Here, the ultimate objective of the company has been taken to be profit maximization, gaining more customers and improving the brand image. In order to apprehend the following piece of research, the researcher has selected an Australian Retail company named Woolworths Ltd to display the impact of the duties followed by the CFO of the Woolworths Ltd on the organizational objectives of the same. 1: General Responsibilities of a CFO in Woolworths Ltd The major responsibility of the Chief Financial Officer of a company is to assist the financial workings of the company they are appointed in. In addition to this, the CFO also requires to determine the areas of strength as well as weakness of the company so as to give the appropriate suggestion regarding the growth of the company. As said by Alà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Maskati et al. (2015), it falls under the major duties of a CFO to ensure that the financial reports proposed by the company are fully authentic by all means. In the words of McNulty et al. (2013), the recent retail market situation in Australia is facing serious competition from the rival firms owing to the emergence of a number of firms engaged in similar form of business. Among the top retail companies operating in Australia currently, Woolworths Ltd is one of the major firms that has a number of stores functioning across the major cities of the country. The following company operates mainly in the food industry sector and offers grocery products to the consumers for the purpose of sale. The company also claims to provide 100% fresh raw food products in the country. In this context, it falls under the duties of a CFO of the Woolworths Ltd to manage and allocate the resources in a manner that would produce the best possible results in favor of the company. The responsibilities of a CFO of the Woolworths Ltd may be categorized into the following heads as follows: As a Controller of the Woolworths Ltd: In the words of Ou et al. (2014), it is the prime responsibility of the CFO of the Woolworths Ltd to look after the reports and the financial presentation of the annual reports of the company. on account of this presentation of the annual reports a lot of major decision regarding the future work proceedings of the company is taken making it absolutely mandatory for the CFO to check the authenticity of the reports. Here, the investors of the Woolworths Ltd such as the employees, shareholders, dividend holders etc depend on the published annual reports of the company to take decision regarding the amount of investment to be done in the company. Besides, it is also essential that the company publishes the annual financial reports on time for the ease of the investors in taking major investment decisions. Here, the CFO of Woolworths is liable to ensure the authenticity of the allocation as well as documentation of the annual reports of the company. As optioned by Block (2008), the CFO also requires performing the responsibilities as that of a cash manager and looking after the disbursement of cash, payables and receivables of various accounts including the reconciliation statements of banks and the payroll functions. In the words of Brealey et al. (2003), the framing of the financial strategies and the implementation of the same in the accounting process of the Woolworths Ltd is among the major responsibilities of the CFO of the company. In addition to that, the CFO also requires reviewing and approving the invoices of the company that are payable in addition to the account receivables of the company. As observed by Deloof (2003), it is the duty of the CFO of Woolworths Ltd to prepare the income tax structure by coordinating with the auditors as well as the external tax accountants in order to make sure that the tax structure prepared is favorable for the well-being of the company. Besides, the CFO of Woolworths also requires keeping a check on the arrangement of the annual reports of the company so that it may be clearly accessed for examining purpose. It is one of the major responsibilities to be fulfilled by the CFO of Woolworths that is reviewing the annual reports of the company along with the financial contracts and agreements, financial policies including the negotiations done on credit and the agreements made with the vendors. According to Garcia-Teruel and Martinez-Solano (2007), the organization and preparation of the financial data helps the CFO of the company to construct the financial strategies of the company to be implemented in the long run. Here, the coordination of the financial plans and the various business operations undertaken by the company is looked after by the CFO of Woolworths Ltd. Further, the CFO also provides the required assistance to the executives in the framing of the policy decisions of the company. In context of this Fao.org (2014), stated that the CFO requires to expertise in delivering the essential opinions as well as perspectives for the financial affairs of the Woolworths Ltd. It is one of the essential duties of the CFO to be undertaken i.e. is to fulfill the reporting duties towards the maintenance of the financial statements along with the budgets of the Woolworths Ltd. As a forecaster of the Economic Strategies of the Woolworths Ltd: As a forecaster for the company the CFO analysis the areas of expertise of the company and finds out the ways of channelizing profits out of it. According to Sarkar and Sudipto (2011), the CFO also needs to identify the areas in which the company lacks behind and suggest the appropriate remedial measures for it. The CFO of Woolworths conducts the allocation of the financial resources of the company and makes the future predictions about the profits risk and growth possibility of the company. In order to identify the possibility of risk in the future, according to Uyar (2009), the CFO of the Woolworths LTD requires linking the data of the company with the workings of the same to find out the possibilities of growth and expansion. As stated by Vintila and Nicoleta (2005), the CFO is responsible to regulate the ongoing performance of the company and to keep a check on the fact that the workings of the company is meeting the organizational needs of the same. The CFO of the Woolworths Ltd engages in the formulation of the financial as well as the internal control systems of the company. The management sector of the Woolworths Ltd is also given the subsequent assistance in the formation of the growth strategies of the company. The checking of the company annual reports and the submission of the same on the prescribed time is the responsibility of the CFO. As a treasurer of the Woolworths Ltd: In the words of OHanlon et al. (2007), it is one of the prime responsibilities of the CFO of a company to work towards the improvement of the financial position and enhancing the financial condition of the same. The CFO also requires deciding upon the basic mix of the debt, equity along with the internal finances of the company with the purpose of deriving the best possible results. As opinioned by Kaya and Halil (2011), along with the other functions, the CFO of a company also requires to take the necessary steps essential to eradicate the problems associated with the capital structure of the Woolworths Ltd. The coordination in between the budget of the Woolworths Ltd and investing activities of the same is looked after by the CFO of the company. Along with the other duties, as stated by Lazaridis (2004), the CFO also decides the rate of charging depreciation on the capital assets of the company. In addition to the above the CFO provides with the required advice concerning the purchase as well as lease along with the disposal of the companys assets. Besides, the CFO of the Woolworths Ltd provides the accounting staffs with the necessary guidelines regarding the framing of the budget policies of the company. Besides, the above stated responsibility as a treasurer, the CFO of Woolworths Ltd also requires keeping a check on the performance of the employees of the company particularly of the financial staffs and taking the necessary actions with regard to the promotion and the dismissal of the staffs appointed. Effect of CFO on the objectives of the Woolworths Ltd The development and growth of the Woolworths Ltd in the fglobal market is shaped and integrated by the CFO of the company. The CFO performs the combined functions of a controller, treasurer as well as of a financial analyst and forecaster. As stated by Harford et al. (2012), the workings of the CFO as a controller help the company in the determination of the growth possibilities of the same and the extent to which the workings are fulfilling the objectives of the company. Further, the CFO also takes the necessary steps that may generate the maximum revenue in the areas in which the company thrives via analyzing the annual reports. As a treasurer of the company the CFO assists the management in reducing the cost of production along with the other expenses incurred by the company by allocating the resources of the business in an efficient way. The analysis of the market structure in which the firm is operating is done by the CFO of the company that may help in determining the occurrences of risks in the business so that the necessary steps may be taken in this regard. However, according to Essen et al. (2013), besides undertaking the major responsibilities of the workings of the company, the prime responsibility of a CFO involves preparing the company financially to deal with the rising competition in the market and expand the business of the Woolworths Ltd. 2: As stated by Yao et al. (2013), in accordance with the theory of the Efficient Market Hypothesis or EMH it becomes quite impossible to beat down the market as the efficiency of the stock market compels the current prices of stock to integrate and display all the required relevant information. In the words of the theory, the stock are always traded in the stock market at the fair value. Therefore, the investors find it impossible to sell the stocks at a higher or inflated price and purchase the stocks at an undervalued rate. In this context, the theory states that through the way of the market timings it becomes quite impossible to surpass the stock market or the selection of stocks by the market experts. As per the words of Della Croce (2012), the best possible way to beat the market is making the investments at a highest risk in order to earn the maximum higher returns. The impact of the theory of EMH has also been witnessed upon the portfolio and pension fund managers etc. However, the theory is also believed to have raised a subsequent amount of controversy. The managers of the pension fund department are in support of this theory stating that is irrelevant to search out for the undervalued stocks or to look out for trends through the process of technical as well as fundamental analysis. However, a few of the investors have been successful in defeating the market on a continuous basis for the past few years. According to Gao (2013), the pension fund managers tend to lay more emphasis on the submissive strategies of investment with a lower cost portfolio. The EMH theory concentrates mainly on the investment strategy along with the total market index and portfolio diversification to form a benchmark for the performance. As per the view of the pension fund managers, it is not possible to determine the future performance of any particular company by studying or analyzing the past performance of the same. Hence, it may be said that the pension fund managers try to implement the strategy of passive investment strategy for their clients in order to play safe. In the words of Vitali et al. (2016), the strategy of passive investment involves the purchase, sale and holding of the stocks for a long period of time in order to earn good returns. It is the belief of the pension fund managers that the long time period will automatically depart the inefficiencies of the short term period. However, it must be noted that the market need not be in an efficient state at all times. The pension fund often aims at avoiding the small cap stocks. Such an incidence mainly takes place due to the additional requirements associated with such kind of stocks. Besides, the pension fund managers often tend to sell out the stocks that are not meeting the objectives of the investment strategy nonetheless the level of performance of the stocks currently. Here, the prime focus of the pension fund managers is to accomplish the pension objectives of the clients. The strategy of the managers is to generate a fixed rate of income post the retirement of the stated client. Conclusion The following research has been done with the purpose of determining the major responsibilities that are undertaken by the CFO of the Woolworths Ltd and the ways in which it assists in meeting the organizational goals of the company. On the completion of the research work, subsequent details regarding the duties of the CFO imply that the growth of the company is directly linked with the efficiency of the working of the CFO of the same. As a controller, treasurer and analyst of the company, the CFO assists the day to day workings of the company particularly in the finance sector so that the company may be able to derive the maximum amount of benefit and revenue. Hence, it may be concluded that the responsibilities undertaken the CFO plays a major role towards the attainment of the organizational objectives of the company. Apart from the above, the researcher has also focused on analyzing the strategy of the pension fund managers. In this context, the researcher has concluded that such managers tend to lay more emphasis on the passive investment strategy. The reason for adopting this strategy is that the major objective of the pension fund managers is to channelize a fixed flow of earnings for their clients. The researcher has given a detailed description regarding the same. Reference List: Alà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Maskati, N., Bate, A.J. and Bhabra, G.S., 2015. 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