E-Goverment Network Infrastructure for the State of Kuwait Term Paper

E-Goverment Network Infrastructure for the State of Kuwait - Term Paper Example Anonymous Computer Technologies is a Kuwait based company dealing with software development and maintenance, network design and deployment, hardware troubleshooting and a diverse range of outsourcing services. Its mission is to target high end business franchises in order to fulfill their computer solution requirements. Its vision is to become a leading IT solution company in Kuwait, a future point of reference and to trade on the Kuwait Stock Exchange. The company has a general objective of satisfying its customer's needs and separate objectives for the Kuwait project that include to design, develop and deploy a network infrastructure for Kuwait, to link every government ministry, department and legal body throughout the country via the network system and to facilitate adequate data exchange between the various government segments . The company has potential to grow given the promise in the multimillion dollar growing IT market in Kuwait. It has an upper hand to its competitors give n its work portfolio and a professional team to boot. In addition to this, the company is sufficiently marketed through advertisements in the internet, print media, various promotions through event sponsorship and pamphlets. Anonymous Computer Technologies has its main operations based on the services and products it offers of software development, networking and sales of computer accessories. To conduct these operations efficiently, the company utilizes various financial reports that include project Start-up Funding Reports, financial Indicators report and projected cash flow. The company hosts an assortment of products and services that are implemented by a professional team made up of 38 members and comprising of the Chief Executive Officer, his assistant, the Chief Information Officer, developers, database administrators, the company secretary, the financial controller, networkers, sales personnel and a marketing team of three. Introduction The business world has revolutionized from the physical market to the intangible internet market that is widely referred to as ecommerce. Ecommerce, an idea originating from Information Technology and the internet have ensured that the global market has been minimized to a click away and also ensured that business is conducted in a systematic manner. Kuwait is an Arab country that has not lagged behind in this wave of new age business conduct. Most Kuwait businesses are run by ecommerce and statistics gathered have proven beyond doubt that Kuwait is fast turning towards a near 100% to ecommerce. In 2008, it was reported that 72% of ecommerce users transacted credit card payments through ecommerce modes. In the same year, 15.5% of all cell phone users in the country with a cell phone penetration of over 80% used ecommerce. However, one significant aspect in the country is dragging the whole revolution: a traditional Kuwait government network structure (Business Monitor International, 13). Kuwait citizens including worker s within the government ministries, departments and other statutory bodies have had to suffer from an unreliable governmental network structure that denies them adequately

The More Effective Leader: Hitler Or Stalin?

The More Effective Leader: Hitler Or Stalin? Introduction In a sense, a certain analogy appears to be between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. It is vital to recognize that these two dictators of the twentieth century represented embodiments of modern evil. Both leaders possessed almost absolute power due to their unprecedented level of repression and attempted manipulation and indoctrination. Each of these dictators was drifted by revolutionary and controversial monopolistic set of dogmatic principles about the internal systemization of society and the leading power of history. Although Hitler and Stalin shared some clear parallelisms, their personalities, the effectiveness of leadership and specific regimes were fairly distinct rather than similar. The first part of this essay will concentrate on the analysis of various historiographical interpretations, focusing on the intentionalist view, to critically assess the effectiveness of Hitlers leadership qualities in particular. Secondly, the essay will focus on the comparison of some distinct aspects of Hitler and Stalins dictatorships in order to examine the importance of power hierarchy in both their regimes. It will be argued that both leaders had different styles of leadership that played very important part in moulding of their authorities and leading power. Furthermore, the essay will evaluate some principal tools of power such as the cult of personality, the powerful machine of propaganda, the use of terror and the development of pivotal economic policies, in order to provide a compact framework of Hitlers leadership potential capabilities. It will be highlighted that Stalin counted far too much upon mass terror therefore he was unable to maintain an efficient mechanism of leadership. Lastly, the essay will conclude by connecting the analysis of Hitlers dictatorship to the current debate between historical scholars, therefore the central argument will be proved that Hitler personified more competent and constructive leader compared to Stalin.* *The purpose of this essay is not to establish the fact that Hitler was, to a certain extent, a leading giant or a failure. It is meant to assess a man and the various facets of successful leadership he applied during his domination in the Third Reich that makes him more effective leader in comparison with Stalins abilities and intentions. The Analysis of Historiographical Interpretations of Hitlers Leadership It is indispensable to realize that several historical schools of thought (the Functionalist/ Structuralist and the Intentionalist school) have tried to account for their own arguments and interpretations of Hitlers dictatorship abilities. Lets look at the major points of each historiographical perspective in order to analyze Hitler as more effective leader in comparison with Stalin; and evaluate the relevance of Kershaws theory of Working Towards the Fuhrer in terms of Hitlers role in the Third Reich. Advocates of the Functionalist view, such as Martin Broszat and Hans Mommsen, largely concentrate on the interpretation of systematization of Hitlers Nazi Germany and on his leadership qualities and charisma which played an essential role in strengthening Hitlers leading effectiveness. According to Broszat, Nazi Germany represented a chaotic tangle of conflicting institutions and bureaucracies therefore the figure of Adolf Hitler was not a key driving force behind the dynamics and organization of Hitlers Germany (Broszat, 1981: p. 262). It can be argued that Hitler as a leader did not solely dominate to the Third Reich because there were constant power struggles initiated by several institutions. Furthermore, in Broszats perspective, Hitler epitomized a weak dictator because the Third Reich signified a dualistic state where Nazi Party operated simultaneously with the normal institutions of Nazi state (Broszat, 1981: p. 244). Broszat advocated that behind a faà §ade of Nazi integrity , there were perpetual struggles for power between the revolutionary Nazi institutions, such as SA and SS, and the traditional authority of German state. According to Broszats opinion, Hitlers leadership style enabled Nazi state to emerge as a collection of competing power units which triggered the radical forces to penetrate into German society (Kershaw, 2000: p. 75). Certainly Hitler undermined orderly government in Germany by his habit of appointing several people to practically the same job, resulting in official competing for Hitlers favour. The Intentionalist historiography is embedded in the concept of Social Darwinism, therefore according to this view Hitler was depicted as a fanatical and extreme ideologist who was incessantly avid for nationalism, militarism, the importance of lebensraum and anti-Semitism. It is worth noting that there is a certain parallel between the Nazi bureaucratic machinery and Darwinian Theory of competition in terms of power struggle. In a certain way, Hitler as a leader represented the fittest element of the Nazi Party, relying on his personal appeal. Hitler was essentially responsible for the increasing momentum of radicalization. In Allan Bullocks view, he was very strong and artful leader, creating uncertainty, confusion and tension among his adherents in order to secure his leading post. Therefore, it is evident that Hitlers intention was to provoke unchecked struggle and competition until the natural selection and the survival of the fittest would have occurred (Kershaw Lewin, 1997: p. 96). To a certain extent, a highly regarded scholar Ian Kershaw inclined to endorse the interpretation of Functionalist/Structuralist school regarding Hitlers leadership qualities. On one hand, Kershaw does not associate himself with the thesis that Hitler was a weak dictator and therefore played an unimportant role in the Third Reich. On the other hand, Kershaw had advocated the idea that Hitler was completely uninvolved in the daily administrative work (Kershaw, 1998: p. 529). It is necessary to point out that Kershaw considered Hitler to be a lazy dictator who was highly inconsistent, indecisive and did not engage in the everyday direction of Germany (Kershaw, 1998: p. 533). However, other structuralist champions, such Mason, maintained that Hitler was predominantly involved in the leading of his interests: military decision-making and planning of foreign policy (Kershaw, 1998: p. 532). It might be argued that Hitlers clear focus enhanced his untouchable leading status and veiled him i n the mystery. Moreover, Kershaw argued that the actual importance of Hitler was mainly based on the perception of Germans people of Hitlers personality and not just on the character of his dictatorship.1 _______________________________________________________ 1 It is vital to recognize that some historians agreed that Hitlers effective leadership aimed to arrange his power that would enable him continuously to educate the people in the spirit of his mission by means (in his words) the total domination of every individual (Cassinelli, 1976: p 63). Nazism and Stalinism: The Comparison of Leadership Styles Æ’Â   Ideology The main contrast between the Stalinism and Nazism was that both regimes arose from completely different types of societies traditions. Russias lack of culture, traditions and illiteracy meant that Stalin had very limited possibilities to accomplish his large tasks, such as transform the whole society from bourgeois system to socialist community. The Nazi ideology was shaped Given that Hitler was allergic to any restriction to his power, he had no clear-cut effort to form the administrative anarchy of the Third Reich. It is essential to emphasize that Hitler is characterized by the unbureaucratic style of leadership mainly because he remained quite aloof from the daily business and government and distanced himself from the intricate situations. Although his style of leadership appears to be, to some extent, limited, Hitler predominantly focused on the realm of his personal interests, such as foreign policy and military affairs. It can be argued, that this unbureaucratic style emphasized Hitlers personality, an inescapable product of the deification of the leadership position itself (Kershaw, Ian, 1997: p. 99). It can be purported that Hitler did not want to concern himself with the administration to sustain prestige to match the created image (Kershaw, 1997: p. 100). According to Marx Webers classic study of the authority of power, the quality of Hitlers charisma consists in his apparent possession of supernatural or superhuman or at all events specifically out of the ordinary qualities, which make him appear an emissary of God, or a destined Leader (Schapiro, 1972: p. 21). By contrast, Stalin personified very interventionist dictator whose main objective was to established the centralization of state power in order to eliminate the party-state dualism (Kershaw Lewin, 1997: p. 91) but also to create a monopolization of all decision-making, in relation to economic reconstruction, to open up a giant bureaucratization of all aspects of life. He intended to intentionally provoke instability in the governmental apparatus and society to implement his unpopular policies by the full command of modern means of control and administration [EVIDENCE]. Stalins power was, therefore, described as bureaucratic authority (Kershaw Lewin, 1997: p. 98) hence his influence in daily administration was far-reaching and cross-sectional. This fact suggests that Hitler largely relied on his charismatic impression to coordinate the states apparatus and gain a public support for his policies and actions, therefore it might be argued that Hitler was more effective leader in strengt hening his support and forming a new and higher kind of man by a process that involved the remolding of mens psychologies than Stalin (Cassinelli, 1976: p. 63). However, Stalin was able to transform illiterate and backward masses of Russians into obedient and simple-minded people. He relied on the masses that have a certain purity and naivetà © enabling them to understand the essence of significant situations. [2] _______________________________________________________ [2] As Stalin said, Simple people sometimes prove to be far nearer to the truth than some highly placed institutions. (Cassinelli, 1976: p. 89) ***Joseph Stalin declared: Can such a radical transformation of the old bourgeois system of society be achieved without a violent revolution, without the dictatorship of the proletariat? (Cassinelli, 1976: p. 77) The Effectiveness of Hitlers Leadership There is no doubt that Hitler and Stalins regimes shared some similar characteristics, nevertheless the main argument of this essay is based on fact that Hitler represented more effective and visionary leader compared to Stalin in terms of the cult of personality, propaganda, the use of terror and economic strategies several significant ways compared to Stalin. Therefore it is quite substantial to take into account the extent to which these major factors contributed to the effectiveness of Hitlers leadership. In essence, both Stalin and Hitler applied their power in different manner, however they shared a common ground regarding to implementation of their power. Evidence I: The Cult of Personality One of the principal factor, that significantly contributed to Hitlers effective leadership, was his sophisticated cult of personality. [3] Hitler was regarded as the personification of the nation and the unity of the national community therefore he primarily established his mastery on a cultivated principle of personal loyalty to which he could always successfully appeal at moments of crisis (Kershaw, 1997: p. 93). It must be noted that the principal reason for Hitlers domination of all who assisted him was an extraordinary power of his individuality. Hitler radiated confidence, high self-esteem and strong belief in his ability; it made him extremely powerful and everyone was frightened by his aura of total assuredness (Cassinelli, 1976: p. 73) thus he could stir up emotions and hypnotize the broad spectrum of German society. Hitlers main characteristic features were his skills to achieve an extraordinary power over the German people and ability to accomplish his political objective s. In large measure, his power to grip an attention and public admiration was especially due to his exceptional oratorical talent. [4] Hitler used his speeches as a powerful tool of political intoxication that inspired a degree of fervor in his listeners that seems to defy definition and explanation (De Luca, 1983: p. 96-7). Therefore it can be argued that Hitlers leadership uniqueness stemmed from his geniality to effectively use spoken word in order to manipulate mass propaganda for his own benefit. In Hitlers view, words build bridges into unexplored regions (Bullock, 1962: p. 372). The key aspect of this argument is that his uncanny ability to appeal to the subconscious and irrational needs of his audience and to solicit the desired response made him a formidable political figure (De Luca, 1983: p. 96-7). Furthermore, Hitler, in contrast to Stalin, was able to add the authority of spiritual founder of national socialism to that of party leader. _______________________________________________________ [3] Charismatic rule has long been neglected and ridiculed, but apparently it has deep roots and becomes a powerful stimulus once the proper psychological and social doubt that millions believe in it (Neumann, 1942: p. 75). Both the Stalinist and the Nazi regimes signified a new genre of political system that concentrated the artificial concept of a leadership cult the heroic myth of the great leader, who represented a man of the people and no more super-ordinate monarch who was distant to the masses. However, in Moshe Lewins view, the rapid pace of centralization in Stalins leadership resulted in rapid growth of officialdom; hence, it might be said that the cult of Stalin was replaced by the cult of the state (Kershaw Lewin, 1997: p. 11) hence Stalin predominantly concentrated on reinforcing his authority in order to be seen as autocratic and retain. [5] It is necessary to emphasize that Stalins rise to power was from within the Soviet Union consequently he shared public glorification with former icons such as Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. The crucial aspect of this argument is that Stalin and his communist ideology could be detached therefore when Stalin died the similar cult of personality never evo lved around his successor but the Soviet communism preserved. It is worth noting that unlike Stalin, Hitler became a permanent image of Nazism. The Fuhrer principle, in essence, rooted in Hitler formulated the Nazis system of governance. [6] megalomaniac ambitions _______________________________________________________ [4] Walter Langer depicts Hitler as a showman with a great sense for the dramatic. However he provides very clear characterization of Hitlers captivating rallies: Not only did [Hitler] he schedule his speeches late in the evening when his audience would be tired and their resistance lowered through natural causes, but would always send an assistant ahead of time to make a short speech warm up the audience. Strom troops always played an important role at these meetings and would line the aisle through which he would pass. At the psychological moment, Hitler would appear in the door at the back of the hall. Then with a small group behind him, he would march through the rows of S.A. men to reach the speakers table. He never glanced to the right or to the left as he came down the aisle and became greatly annoyed if anyone tried to accost him or hampered his progress. Whenever possible he would have a band present, and would strike up a lively military march as he came down the aisle (Lan ger, 1972: p. 46). [5] To a certain extent, a Cult of Stalin Worship developed from a sense of paranoia because he wanted people to deify him and if he had to accomplish it though brutal means then he was prepared to do so. [6] Moreover, it might be said that the loyal adulation of Hitler signified the most effective political instrument of power in Nazi Germany, therefore there was no reliance and dependence on massive domestic constrain that was typical feature for Stalins rule. Evidence II: Propaganda Æ’Â   controlling every single aspect of daily-life Æ’Â   parades and marches provided a sense of order and gave a feeling of belonging. So that the unity between the people was very firm. Æ’Â  youth indoctrination The second key factor strengthening the effectiveness of Hitlers power was the Nazi propaganda that played very substantial role in the setting of totalitarian society. In essence, the primary objective of Hitlers propaganda was not the ideological enlightenment of the masses, but their mobilization for action through extensive spreading of ideas and symbols aimed at influencing opinion and attitude of wide range of people. For Hitler, propaganda was the sharpest weapon in conquering the state, and remains the sharpest weapon in maintaining and building up the state (Hinton Hite, 2000: p. 244). It can be affirmed that every propaganda was the preparation of political activities (Unger, 1974:p. 35). Hitlers effectiveness to indoctrinate society might be seen in fact that the high cultural level of the Germans allowed the Nazis to extensively apply the technical potentialities of modern propaganda as far as possible; therefore Nazis propagandist intended to develop the manipulation of words and symbols into the highest creative art (Unger, 1974: p. 47). [EVIDENCE Æ’Â   Unger p. 43] [7] In some way, this propaganda had also considerable success in strengthening overall support for Hitler and the regime, by reinforcing enthusiasm for a strong leader who was capable of making Germany economically and military powerful. For instance, the Nuremberg rallies brought some excitement into peoples lives and gave them a sense of belonging to a great movement. [EVIDENCE Æ’Â   DATA, STATISTICS World History] In contrast, Stalins propaganda contended with the lack of technical skills and the virtues of labour disciple therefore the effectiveness of propaganda was very limited. Due to the lack of modern mass media in the Soviet Union, a large illiterate masses (especially peasantries), were only indoctrinated by oral agitation which was hardly disseminate across large distances. There were no cultural and informational media which cemented the framework of modern society, therefore the Soviet propaganda was full of stereotyped monotony of Stalins declarative and simplistic slogans convincing the Russians about Stalins greatness and invincibility. In other words, Soviet propaganda had to be adapted to the capacity of the least intelligent and constant repetition was one of its main weapons (Unger, 1974: p. 46). Æ’Â   forcible collectivization of agriculture led to a direct clash between Stalins regime and the majority of the population therefore the rapid mobilization /////In Conquests view, the alienation distinctly increased before the wartime since many Russians started to hate Stalin for the misery he triggered; therefore it led to gradual decline in morale and discipline (Conquest, 1991: p. ). In case of Stalin, the propaganda tool was used to a limited extent and often in a wrong way. It is essential to mention that the widespread fear between the Russian population resulted in limited ability to believe Stalins promises and slogans. EVIDENCE !!!!!! ////Æ’Â  Additionally, it is vital to perceive that Hitlers leading effectiveness was mainly achieved by remarkable Nazi propaganda that enhance the popularity of policies that were genuinely popular, for instance, public works projects (autobahn) or the 1933 Farm Law assuring subsidies for farms. Whereas Stalins propaganda was directed at forming a measure of acceptance for politics that were quite undesirable, such as compulsory collectivization and rapid industrialization. [FOOTNOTES Æ’Â   EVIDENCE!!!!!] Unger Citation!!! _______________________________________________________ [7] According to historian Dick Geary, the Nazi propaganda was most successful: where it could play upon the traditional German prejudices and values of German middle-class society upon issues such as nationalism, anti-socialism, family issuesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Geary, 1993: p. 59). [8] Evidence III: The Use of Terror and Violence The third crucial element related to Hitlers effective leadership is the use of terror and violence. Terroristic aspect of the two regimes appears to be very significant in order to compare the leadership qualities of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Hitler seems to have had no deliberate policy of destabilization. In a sense, he tried to protect his deified leadership position by his non-bureaucratic and non-interventionist governance because he did not want to lose a popularity by deciding some unpopular policies. Furthermore, Hitler did not rule internally by terror even so his regime was deeply authoritarian and disciplinary. This means that his effectiveness based on the ability to maintain a supporting base of Nazi members in order to strengthen his own position but also to stabilize the party apparatus. However, with the exception of his purge of the Storm Trooper leadership on the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, Hitler never triggered a systematic attack on members of his ow n regime. However, It is important to note that Hitler never initiated an organized terror on members of his regime. It is significant to highlight that Hitler had his leadership position technically more secure than Stalin. On the other hand, Stalin personified the creature of bureaucracy therefore he appeared intentionally to destabilize government to turn this to his advantage; in the mid-1930s Stalin mainly instigated the liquidation of the kulaks as a class and great purges against his closest supporters in order to eliminate all challenges to his absolutistic rule but also he used the brutality of collectivization to infected the whole political system with the lust for blood and any criticism came to be identified with the sabotage of class enemies (Sakwa, 1998: p. 40). To a considerable extent, Stalins purges and the extensive use of terror and violence undermined the stability of his position and intensify his opposition within the Party sector (Kershaw, 1997: p. 93). However, it might be said that the use of purges represented a kind of weapon against the unstoppable power and expansion of Stalinist bureaucracy which seemed to malfunction. Also Stalins paranoid mentality resulted in unprecedent ed brutality used as an instrument for applying and implementing his policies and terrorizing his followers and Soviet citizens. Therefore he used purges and the Show Trials to remove Old Bolshevik rivals like Zinoniev and Kamenev, in order to destroy their reputation, so that he alone could take the credit for the Communist Partys achievements. Additionally, Steve Rosefielde argues that in the years 1929-38, the average Gulag forced labour population was about 8.8 million, and that the total adult losses attributable to forced labour, collectivization and the purges was over 20 million (Sakwa, 1998: p. 41). This, in fact, resulted in a greater alienation of masses and sustained the Soviet peoples sense of anxiety and feeling of helplessness thus they responded to Stalins force by self-control and dissimulation (Cassinelli, 1976: p. 129). Furthermore, the Purges disruptive effects were felt in the development of industry where the destruction of qualified engineers and managers seri ously undermined the Second Five Year Plan and accounts for Stalins reduction in the scale of the purges in 1939. Nonetheless the destructive policies penetrated through Stalins autocracy and the Soviet people felt perpetually insecure therefore this led to escalation of opposition between the Soviet citizens which had weakening effect on Stalins power. Evidence IV: The Major Economic Policies Another important factor that reflects Hitlers effective leadership is the series of economic policies implemented in 1930s. The main success of Hitlers economic recovery based on the total elimination of unemployment and on stabilization of German economy and progress towards an economy that would prepare Germany for war. For instance, Dr. Schacht organized Germanys finances to fund a huge programme of work creation; the increase in government spending (from RM 8.6 billion in 1932 to RM 29.3 billion by 1938) resulted in schemes to build a network of autobahns or conservation programmes. Moreover, Hitler concentrated on need to gear the economy for war It is important to highlight that Hitler was aware that he needed the support of the German people and could not risk to exacerbate their living standards at the cost of military supremacy. In 1930s, Hitler developed managed economy in Nazi Germany and in 1936 he focused on the Four Year Plan Æ’Â   autobahn completed, industry rebuilt, farmers: Blood and Soil, Workers: Strength Through Joy Æ’Â   Germany was a great economic power Stalin Æ’Â   unsuccessful FYPs collectivization and industrialization still backward- inability to catch up the West!! On the other hand, it might be argued that Stalins economic policies had only moderate short-term success. established the command economy [*9*] in the Soviet Union, clearly without this economic concept USSR would not survived. However, Stalins Five Year Plans were followed by forcible collectivization of the peasantry in order to erase all traces of capitalism and transform Soviet Union into fully industrialized, self-sufficient and completely socialist state without regard to cost. It is significant to point out that the effort to fulfill overambitious plans and resistance to collectivization led to acute shortage throughout the economy. It can be argued that despite the Stalin The top priority was investment in heavy industry which was view as the key to rapid economic growth and as an essential guarantee of national security. The acceleration continued through the Second Five Year Plan and extended into consumer goods. Against a background of a political purges and partial wartime mobilization, the pace of industrial growth slackened in the three years of the Third Five Year Plan, and such growth as took place may be attributed to territorial expansion. (p. 152-3) Falsification Æ’Â   It is vital to point out that Stalins leadership proved to be inefficient in terms of improving the Russian economy in the long run and great human expense. According to Isaac Deutscher, Stalins All-out Drive revolution from above appeared to be unsuccessful attempt to stimulate the production and increase the output because it lacked all rules of logic and principles of economies which were turned upside down (Cassinelli, 1976: p. 117). It is important to realize that Stalins economic policies were aimed at satisfying his own ideology rather than for benefit of people. This clearly supports the initial claim that Stalin was less effective leader than Hitler. _______________________________________________________ [*9*] Soviet planned or command economy was a type of economy in which centralized, bureaucratic management of economy, GOSPLAN, made a wide range of decisions penetrating to production and wages. Basically, the key objectives of centrally planned economy were to build socialism as quickly as possible and centralize the decision making and control. [10] In 1932, the number of unemployed in Germany was 5.6 million, however in 1938 there were only 0.2 unemployed in Nazi Germany. [EVIDENCE] Debate: Intentionalist view and Hitlers Effective Leadership Qualities Intentionalist view Æ’Â   Hitlers leadership domination and effectiveness was apparent in connection with [***]Hitlers dictatorship presented very extreme and intensive totalitarian demands of modern state, such as unexpected degree of violence and oppression, unprecedented manipulation of mass media to gain control and mobilize the masses, an unaccustomed cynicism in the international relations, an extraordinary aggression of nationalism and pestilent power of ideological racial superiority. Additionally, this specific dictatorship demonstrated that the modern, advanced and cultural society could fall headlong into barbarism. Indeed, Hitlers form of dictatorship meant the collapse of the modern civilization. On the other hand, Stalin personified a type of leader who focused on the continuity of Leninist tradition. By contrast, Stalin used hostility and terror as a normal feature of government when the USSR was in peace. His dictatorship resulted in creation of a personality cult of monstrous proportions but he never achieved a popular acceptance for his policies as Hitler did. ******It is vital to highlight that Hitler was more effective leader in terms of his cult of personality, propaganda and social and economic policies to 1941. This year represented a key turning point in Hitlers power and effectivity. Hitlers clash with Stalin indicated that the existing distribution of powerfulness was no longer able to outlast. It is very interesting to see the rapid transformation of power from Hitler to Stalin. Therefore it may be argued that, from the chronological perspective, Hitler was able to keep his authority at the highest position so his leadership skills were clearly better than Stalins abilities. Conclusion In conclusion, although Hitler signified a leader of one of the purest autocracies, there were some limits to his power, but it is essential to point out that these limits did not result from imperfections in his machinery of power but mainly from the context within which Hitler has to operate. However, Hitlers success might be apparent in regard to popular acceptance of his policies but also most Germans appreciated the sense of national community which was constantly instilled into them by Hitler. Furthermore, Hitlers long-lasting interest for the material-well being and social standing gave his regime a popular legitimacy that was one of the greatest success to his power. Security Management: Instant Messaging Perspective Security Management: Instant Messaging Perspective Executive Summary Nowadays, Instant messaging (IM) is used in the corporate environment which is rising rapidly, as organizations welcome to accept IM as a business communications tool. IM promotes cooperation and real-time communication among employees, business partners, and customers. It also brings new threats to local area network security and makes organizations to have a potential risks when employees share illegal or inappropriate content over the internet. Organizations are also faced with reduced employee productivity when IM is used arbitrarily and for personal communications. When use of IM is unmonitored and uncontrolled, it can lead to a significant drain on IT resources, as the IT staff attempt to identify which IM applications are being used and by whom. Moreover, when instant messaging is used to send and receive files, not only can the resulting drain on bandwidth negatively impact network performance, but the files themselves can pose a serious security threat. This report provides information to better understand threats of IM and mitigate its impact to business. The threats of IM are investigated. The trend in growing targets and number of cases are related to IM threats are analyzed. The impacts to business are assessed to identify areas of security management require great concern. Finally, measures are introduced to improve security management such that IM threats become manageable and their impact is reduced. 1. Introduction Today, Instant Messaging (IM) applications have rapidly become accepted by businesses as viable employee communications tools. IM is more instant than email, obviously easy-to-use, and provides the real-time collaboration organizations need to ensure quick judgments and decisions. Using Instant Messaging, organizations and their business partners can make a conference, share files and information easily over the Internet. Furthermore, within the organization, IM conversations among project team members can resolve issues and questions in an instantsomething that might have taken a series of emails, telephone calls, or face-to-face meetings to carry out. IM can be used to provide immediate replies to requests. It can also help promote personal relationships with customers and remote employees, and assist customers in completing transactions with Web-based businesses. This report is shown the concern of security of IM and gives some countermeasure to deal with IM threats. 2. Findings and Analysis 2.1 What threats are related to Instant Messaging? l   Worms A worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes and it may do without any user participation. In case of instant messaging, antivirus software does not currently monitor traffic at OSI Model-network layer. If a worm starts to spread via instant messaging, it cannot be stopped before it reached the remotes computer. Dissimilar a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing application or program. Worm almost always causes damage to the network when it drains the network bandwidth. On the contrary, virus almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer. The number of instant messaging worms is rising steadily. This is made clear when one considers the list of recent IM worms: n dubbed Pykse.A (16 April 2007) n W32/Rbot-GRS (26 June 2007) However, a few antivirus applications can plug in to instant messaging clients for scanning files when they are received. The lack of applications scanning instant messaging network traffic is partly due to the difficulty in monitoring instant messaging traffic so that the antivirus product running at the desktop level can catch the worms. l Backdoor Trojan Horses Instant messaging clients allow peer-to-peer file sharing, the instant messaging client to share all files on the system with full access to everyone can be configured by a Trojan Horse and in this way gain backdoor access to the computer. Moreover, the victim computer is on-line; a notification will be send to hacker automatically. So hacker can keeps track and accesses the infected computer easily. Besides, the hacker does not need to open new suspicious ports for communication in that hacker can instead use already open instant messaging ports. Classic backdoor trojans open an outgoing listening port on the computer, forming a connection with a remote machine. If the trojan operates via the instant messaging client, it does not open a new port as the user has usually already created an allow rule for instant messaging traffic to be outbound from their machine, therefore, allowing the backdoor trojan horse using the same channel to go unblocked. l Hijacking and Impersonation Users can be impersonated in many different ways by hacker. The most frequently used attack is solely stealing the account information of an unsuspecting user using the instant messaging or IRC application. Hacker can execute a password-stealing trojan horse to obtain the account information of a user. If the password for the instant messaging client is saved on the computer, the hacker could send a trojan to an unsuspecting user. When trojan executed, it would find the password for the instant messaging account used by the victim and send it back to the hacker. l Denial of Service Instant messaging may lead a computer vulnerable to denial of service (DoS) attacks. These attacks may have different outcomes: A lot of DoS attacks make the instant messaging client crash, hang, and in some cases consume a large amount of computer processing power and causing the entire computer to become unstable. There are many ways in which a hacker can cause a denial of service on an instant messenger client. Furthermore, they are used to combine with other attacks, such as the hijacking of a connection and form a bot network to attack other servers. l Unauthorized Disclosure of Information Information disclosure could occur without the use of a trojan horse. Once the data that is being transmitted via the instant messaging network is not encrypted, a network sniffer can sniff data on most types of networks and can be used to capture the instant messaging traffic. Also, a hacker could sniff the packets from an entire instant messaging session. It can be very dangerous as hacker may gain access to privileged information. It is especially dangerous in the corporate environment in that confidential information may be transmitted along the instant messaging network. 2.2 Recent Incidents Case 1: New IM worm targets Skype users (Published date: 17 Apr 2007) Affected: The IM worm affects Skype users running Windows. Threat Type: Worm Description: A new instant-messaging pest that spreads using the chat feature in Skype has surfaced, security firm F-Secure warned. The worm, dubbed Pykse.A, is similar to threats that affect instant-messaging applications. A targeted Skype user will receive a chat message with text and a Web link that looks like it goes to a JPEG file on a Web site, F-Secure said on its Web site. Clicking the link will redirect the user to a malicious file. The file, after executing, will send a malicious link to all online contacts in a Skype users list and will show a picture of a scantily clad woman, F-Secure said. In addition, it sets the users Skype status message to Do Not Disturb, the security firm said. Pykse also visits a number of Web sites that dont host any malicious code and a site that appears to count infected machines, F-Secure said. The Finnish security company doesnt list any particular malicious payload for Pykse other than it spreading and visiting Web sites. Status: Skype also recommends using antivirus software to check the files received from other people. Case 2: Next-generation Skype Trojan hits web (Published date: 26 Mar 2007) Affected: Warezov Trojan horse to target Skype users. Threat Type: Trojan Horse Description: Miscreants have again adapted the Warezov Trojan horse to target Skype users. The attack is similar to threats that target instant-messaging applications. A targeted Skype user will receive a chat message with the text Check up this and a link to a malicious executable called file_01.exe on a website. Once infected, a computer will be at the beck and call of the attacker and the Trojan horse will start sending messages to the victims Skype contacts to propagate. Status: Skype warned users against opening the malicious file, take caution in general when opening attachments, and also recommends using antivirus software to check incoming files. Case 3: AIM bot creates fight combos to spread (Published date: 18 Sep 2006) Affected: Online attackers have created an instant-messaging bot program for AOL instant messaging that chains together a number of executable files, similar to the combination moves in fight games. Threat type: Worm and Bot Description: The software, dubbed the AIM Pipeline worm, uses modular executable files to infect machines with different functionality but also to make the bot networks growth more robust: if a Web site hosting one of the components gets shutdown, the other pieces of the worm can still spread. Status: America Online has blocked the URLs used in the messages sent by the AIM Pipeline worm. 2.3 Trends l Increase in IM threats IM Security Center researchers tracked 33 malicious code attacks over IM networks during the month of September, bringing the 2007 total to 297. This is a 20% increase in IM threats compared with the same time period last year. (SAN DIEGO Akonix Systems, Inc 2007) Research also indicates that there are more targets affected by IM threats (SANS Institute 2006) l New type of IM worms New IM worms identified include Agent-GCG, Ataxbot, Exploit-VcardGadget, Focelto, MSNFunny, IMBot, MsnSend, MSN-WhoBlocked, Neeris, Pykse, Skipi, STRATION and Yalove. IRCBot was the most common with four variants, followed by Imaut and Neeris with two, respectively. Akonix tracked 16 attacks on P2P networks, such as Kazaa and eDonkey (SAN DIEGO Akonix Systems, Inc) l Evolution of IM threats The vulnerability of IM are used in botnet communication and spread the bot and worms to another computers. When the hacker send the command to botnet army, the consequence of attacks is very serious. Unlike other attacks, botnet can comprised of thousands of computer power to perform a variety of attacks against a wide range target. For example, the botmaster can command each zombie participant in a botnet to launch spamming e-mails to steal the credit card information and launch Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks simultaneously against the thousands of computer. 2.4 Factors for growth of IM threats The growth of instant messaging usage within the organization, vulnerabilities in public IM networks occur during the process of transferring files. When a user transfers files or uses other IM features like file sharing or voice chat, users IP address is revealed. Using this IP address, hackers can have ability to attack the system. Some organizations configure their firewalls to block ports used by IM applications or block the external addresses of IM network servers. But IM applications can be configured to change ports automatically and are capable of penetrating firewalls through ports used by other applications. (For example: port 80). So policy control management is required. 3. Impact to Business Once the IM threats occur in the organizations, they face a significant security risk from disclosure of intellectual property or business-critical information using IMs file attachment capability. As IM is a highly informal means of communication, employees can unintentionally send critical company-confidential information, such as product specifications, code, and blueprints, or private customer data, to friends, colleagues, and competitors. There are three main concerns of using the IM which are identified. l Legal Liability concerns The danger of allowing employees to use IM at work under lacking of security management, the viruses and worms is very easy to expose. On the other hand, organizations face legal and compliance risks when employees share copyrighted, illegal, or inappropriate content via instant messaging. Unmonitored IM applications allow employees to openly transfer files and information that could lead to significant corporate liability. For example, transferring copyrighted MP3 files, movies, and software using IM is common among friends and bypasses the file size restrictions of email. l Employee productivity loss Many employees have already adopted IM which they prefer that IM is regarded as the personal connection with friends of family, because it has not used the telephone to be obvious, talking cant be eavesdropped. Employees can seem it is work, in their keyboard is typed and left, been exchanging the personal connection with friends of family all the time. l IT resource abuse Most organizations dont know what kind of IM should be installed on computer, which employees should use the IM and how often to use IM for business communication such as send, receive files, video conferencing. In addition, it is not uncommon for intensive file sharing over the IM that can influence the performance of the network. 4. Dealing with Instant Messaging threats IM threats can be operated by insider (employees) and outsider (hacker). According to the Figure 4-1, Operational-level employees want to increase their ability to override controls mechanisms base on some factors such as fear of lose their job whereas the top level-manger want to have control mechanism to monitor all harmful activity in the organization. However, top level-mangers always neglect the risk of middle-level managers whose have part of administrative power to act as insider. So that good security management must be executed in the organization to avoid or mitigate the insider and outsider activities. Consequently, prevention, detection, incident response and controls are good measures for security management. 4.1 Prevention Ensure that vendor patches are promptly applied to instant messaging software, interrelated applications, and the underlying operating system. Firewalls to separate all DMZs, internal networks and external un-trusted networks Monitor using an Intrusion Detection/ Prevention system for users. Create secure communications channel when using instant messaging with trusted business partners Do not rely on external IM servers for internal use of instant messaging. Install and use anti-virus and anti-spyware applications. Consider disposing the clear products designed for instant messaging safely. Some product like as Trend Micro IM Security for Microsoft Office and Symantec IM Manager 2007 seamlessly manages can be used for mitigation of the potential risks associated in that they acts a filter and detector between internal and external. Using Multi-factors authentication or biometric authentication to prevent the hacker to login the target computers. 4.2 Detection Monitor and detect using an Intrusion Detection for users creating tunnels for instant messaging. An intrusion detection system (IDS) generally detects unwanted manipulations of computer systems, mainly through the Internet. Enable the auto detect mode of updated antivirus and anti-spyware products for client computer. Filter all http traffic through an authenticating proxy server or firewall to provide additional capabilities of filtering or monitoring instant messaging traffic. Appropriately configure intrusion detection systems. Understand that many instant messaging applications are capable of enabling associated communications to masquerade as otherwise allowed traffic (e.g. http). 4.3 Incident Response Block popular instant messaging ports. Block access to known public instant messaging servers that have not been explicitly authorized. Virus-scanning software at all critical entry points such as firewalls, remote access server, e-mail servers etc. Ensure that vendor patches are promptly applied to instant messaging software, interrelated applications, and the underlying operating system. 4.4 Management Policy Controls Establish policies for acceptable use of instant messaging and ensure that all users are aware of those policies and clearly understand the potential risks. General users should not be allowed to install software. Limit Administrative and Power User level privileges to support personnel with their support ability. If a user must have Administrative or Power User privileges, create a separate account to be used for their daily office functions, internet surfing and on-line communication. 5. Conclusion Instant messaging has clearly taken off as a means of communication. The ability to communicate in real-time makes it an ideal medium for both business and personal communication. Unfortunately, threats that affect instant messaging already exist today, including worms and vulnerabilities that can give hackers remote access to vulnerable computers and can replicate in seconds can affect more than just instant messaging. Therefore, end users and corporations should employ basic security countermeasure. However, update the patch of product can mitigate the occurrence of threats, but these measures are not enough to prevent the network security. Corporations should have other measures for security such as prevention, detection and incident response. Furthermore, management controls are available to less the impact of IM threats. Once these measures get implement, IM threats must become manageable as a result of reducing the damage of business. References Michael E. Whitman and Herbert J. Mattord (2004) Management of Information Security, Boston, Mass.; London: Thomson/Course Technology Joris Evers (2007) New IM worm targets Skype users, Cnet, Available: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/New-IM-worm-targets-Skype-users/0,130061744,339274904,00.htm (17 Apr 2007) Joris Evers (2007) Next-generation Skype Trojan hits web, Silicon, Available: http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39166534,00.htm (26 Mar 2007) (2006) AIM bot creates fight combos to spread, Security Focus, Available: http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/305 (18 Sep 2006) San Diego (2007) Akonix Intros IM Security Appliance, Dark Reading, Available: http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=125041WT.svl=wire_2  (29 MAY, 2007) San Diego (2007) Akonixs Threat Center tracks 33 IM attacks , Dark Reading, Available: http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=135045  (28 Sep 2007) SANS Institute (2006) SANS Top-20 Internet Security Attack Targets, Available: http://www.sans.org/top20/ (15 Nov 2006) Symantec (2006) Protect Your Business from Instant Messaging Threats, Available: http://www.symantec.com/business/library/article.jsp?aid=instant_messaging_threats (11 Jul 2006) Symantec (2007) Internet Security Threat Report 2007,  Avalable: http://tc.imlogic.com/threatcenterportal/pubIframe.aspx (13 Jun 2007)

The Generation of Ozone for Water Purification in Third World Countries

The Generation of Ozone for Water Purification in Third World Countries Ozone is the O3 molecule formed through the combination of molecular and atomic oxygen. It can be used to remove iron, pesticides, detergents, color, ammonia and other nitrogen derivatives from water. Ozonation is a process used worldwide to render water potable. Although using ozone for disinfection can be expensive and inconvenient, it has, among others, the advantages of being widely effective, of adding oxygen to the water, and of being sufficient, even in low concentrations (Evans 140). The ozone used in ozonation can be produced through a variety of methods, the most common of which include the application of ultraviolet light to pure or non-pure oxygen; the silent electric discharge process, in which oxygen passes through a field of high voltage alternating current; and the electrochemical process that occurs when current is passed through water, causing the formation of hydrogen, oxygen, and ozone. (Evans 127). Each of these methods for ozone production has drawbacks. The ultraviolet irradiation technique includes all of the dangers normally associated with exposure to ultraviolet light, and requires expensive equipment. The silent electric discharge process generates so much heat that a method of controlling the temperature is necessary. Also, this process is most efficient with clean, cool, dry air; the available air might not conform to these specifications, requiring further action. The electrochemical process produces tiny quantities of ozone in comparison to molecular oxygen, and is therefore unreliable. (The electrochemical process can also be applied using sulfuric or perchloric acid, but this method is obviously unsuitab... ... acquire. Although the solution to the problem of providing drinkable water in remote and disadvantaged locations is not clear cut, the use of ozone as a disinfectant is a promising and intriguing technique. Works Cited Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water. Alternative Disinfectants and Oxidants Guidance Manual. United States, 1999. Evans, Frances. Ozone in Water and Wastewater Treatment. Ann Arbor: Science Publishers, 1972. â€Å"Make some ozone.† BigClive.Com. 11 Dec. 2006 Rice, Rip G., and Aharan Netzer. Handbook of Ozone Technology and Applications: Volume II: Ozone for Drinking Water Treatment. Boston: Butterworth Publishers, 1984. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). June 2004. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 11 Dec. 2006 The Generation of Ozone for Water Purification in Third World Countries The Generation of Ozone for Water Purification in Third World Countries Ozone is the O3 molecule formed through the combination of molecular and atomic oxygen. It can be used to remove iron, pesticides, detergents, color, ammonia and other nitrogen derivatives from water. Ozonation is a process used worldwide to render water potable. Although using ozone for disinfection can be expensive and inconvenient, it has, among others, the advantages of being widely effective, of adding oxygen to the water, and of being sufficient, even in low concentrations (Evans 140). The ozone used in ozonation can be produced through a variety of methods, the most common of which include the application of ultraviolet light to pure or non-pure oxygen; the silent electric discharge process, in which oxygen passes through a field of high voltage alternating current; and the electrochemical process that occurs when current is passed through water, causing the formation of hydrogen, oxygen, and ozone. (Evans 127). Each of these methods for ozone production has drawbacks. The ultraviolet irradiation technique includes all of the dangers normally associated with exposure to ultraviolet light, and requires expensive equipment. The silent electric discharge process generates so much heat that a method of controlling the temperature is necessary. Also, this process is most efficient with clean, cool, dry air; the available air might not conform to these specifications, requiring further action. The electrochemical process produces tiny quantities of ozone in comparison to molecular oxygen, and is therefore unreliable. (The electrochemical process can also be applied using sulfuric or perchloric acid, but this method is obviously unsuitab... ... acquire. Although the solution to the problem of providing drinkable water in remote and disadvantaged locations is not clear cut, the use of ozone as a disinfectant is a promising and intriguing technique. Works Cited Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water. Alternative Disinfectants and Oxidants Guidance Manual. United States, 1999. Evans, Frances. Ozone in Water and Wastewater Treatment. Ann Arbor: Science Publishers, 1972. â€Å"Make some ozone.† BigClive.Com. 11 Dec. 2006 Rice, Rip G., and Aharan Netzer. Handbook of Ozone Technology and Applications: Volume II: Ozone for Drinking Water Treatment. Boston: Butterworth Publishers, 1984. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). June 2004. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 11 Dec. 2006

Series 7 Study Guide

Chapter 13 Investment Company ( ) Investment Companies A corporation or trust in which investors pool their funds and are usually organized as corporations in the same manner as any other business corporation. However, some have been established as trusts and as such are supervised by trustees rather than dir ? Diversification Advantages of Investment ? Professional Management Company ? Liquidity The basic legistration governing investment company and difines and classifies investment companies into 3 basic types. ? Face Amount Certificate Company The Investment Company Act of ?Unit Investment Trust(UIT) 1940 ? Management Company The Act requires all investment companies with 100 shareholders or more to register with the SEC. A public offering may not be made by a mutual fund until it has a minimum net worth of $100,000. New shares are registered by the fund periodically, usually Type of Investment Companies Face Amount Certificate Issues debt certificates offering a predetermined ra te of interest. Holders are entitled to redeem Company their certificates for a fixed amount on a specified date.Investment companies with no management fee and low sales charges that invest in a fixed Unit Investment portfolio of municipal or corporate bonds are categorized as UIT. The funds are issued in book (UIT / ) entry form and registered form. Established under an indenture or simil Manage a portfolio of securities in accordance with specified investment objectives. Each day, usually at the end of trading on the NYSE, a management company will determine the value of its Management Company portfolio or the net asset value(NAV) per share. ? Closed-end ? Does not issue redeemable shares ? Open-end ?Issues redeemable shares Usually capitalizes through a 1-time public offering of shares and may issue commom stock, Closed-end Investment preferred stock, or bonds. The company does not continuously issue shares nor will it redeem its Company shares. The market price of closed-end funds will be based on the f Also called mutual fund. They are continuously issuing new shares which they stand ready to Open-end Investment Company redeem. All shares issued are common shares ONLY. Instead of 5% policy, sales charge will be applied. Management(investment advisory) fees are normally the largest Chapter 13Types of Mutual Funds Diversified Common Stock Funds Income Funds Balanced Funds Bond Funds Money Market Funds Bonds and Preferred Stock Funds Specialized Funds Operation of a Mutual Fund Board of Directors Investment Companies Consists mostly of common stocks. The funds can have a variety of investment objectives. One might be conservative and invest primarily in blue-chip stocks. Another might be more aggressive and invest primarily in growth stocks. Have as their investment objective high current income. Maintain some proportion of their assets in bonds and preferred stock as well as in common stock.Invest their assets solely in bonds and have as their objective stability of income. Invest in short-term debt(money market) instruments. A typical money market fund invests in CP and CDs. They generally pays the interest to the investors monthly. Invest in senior securities, both bonds and preferred stock. Their objective is current income with safety of principal. Invest a large proportion of their assets in a particular industry such as the chemical industry. Elected by the mutual fund shareholders and are responsible for developing and implementing investment policies.According to the Investment Company Act of 1940, at least 40% of the board of directors must be unaffiliated with the mutual fund. Unless authorized by majority vote of its shares, an investment company may not; ? Go from diversified to non-diversified ? Change its investment objectives and concentration of investments ? Borrow money, underwrite securities issued by others, make loans, buy or sell real estate ? Change the nature of business so as to cease acting Must be sent to stockholders semiannually. Mutual funds sell ex-dividend whenever the fund or its principal underwriter(sponsor) determines.The ex-dividend date for a mutual fund is usually the same day as the record date. Contracted by the fund to issue new shares and cancel redeemed shares for the fund. Normally also in charge of the disbursement of dividend and capital gain distributions and performing other bookkeeping. Responsible for the safekeeping of the securities owned by a mutual fund. Mutual funds must have a national bank, trust company or other qualified institution act as its custodian. He holds the cash and securities of the fund but does NOT perform any mana The principal underwriter of the fund.He has an exclusive agreement with the fund which allows him to purchase fund shares at the current NAV. The shares may then be resold to the public, through outside dealers or the sponsor's sales force, at the full Shareholder Rights Financial Report Dividend of Mutual Fund Transfer Agent Custodian Sponsor(Distributor) Chapter 13 Section 12b-1(The Investment Company Act of 1940) Investment Companies Though a sponsor is used and bears the cost of sales of literature and other promotional items, under certain situation, selling expenses may be borne by the fund. Chapter 13 Dealers Investment CompaniesMust have a signed selling agreement with the sponsor. They are fobidden to purchase mutual fund shares for inventory. But they can do so only to fill customer orders or for their own investment. If a dealer who has purchased shares for investment decides Manages the fund's portfolio. Re. management of a mutual fund, securities on margin, participate in a joint account, or sell short securities may not be permitted in general. Investment advisory contracts must be approved by a majority of the fund's share Total Expense / Average Net Assets NAV + Sales Charge = NAV / (100% – Sales Charge Percentage) = $10. 0 / (100% – 7%) = $10. 75 Total Net Asset / Number o f Shares Outstanding Orders to buy and sell the fund are based on the next price to be computed. Sales Charge / Public Offering Price = $1. 57 / $19. 60 = 8% Based on public offering price. According to the NASD's Conduct Rules, the maximum allowable percentage is 8. 5%. In the sale, there is no sales charge though is redemption fee(i. e. 1%). To charge the maximum 8. 5% sales charge, the mutual fund must offer i To be sold to the public at the NAV, without any sales charge added. No-load fund may charge a liquidation fee when an investor sells the fund.Dollar levels at which the sales charge is reduced. Amount Deposited Sales Charge Percentage Less than $10,000 8. 5% $10,000 – $25,000 7. 5% $25,000 – $50,000 6. 0% Enables an investor to qualify for the discount made available by breakpoints without initially depositing the entire amount required. LOIs are NOT binding on the investor and only available to single purchaser. The letter states the investor's intention T hose people who are eligible for sales breakpoints and LOI, which includes a joint account only between husband and wife.Partnership, investment clubs and joint accounts are NOT eligible for reduced sales charges or LOI. Investment Advisor Expense Ratio Buying Mutual Fund Shares Public Offering Price(Asked Price) Net Asset Value(NAV / per share) Buy and Sell the Fund Sales Charge Percentage No-load(N. L. ) Funds Breakpoints Letter of Intent(LOI) Single Purchaser Chapter 13 Voluntary Plans Dollar Cost Averaging (Constant Dollar Plan) Dollar Averaging Redeeming Mutual Fund Shares Redemption Investment Companies Require an initial minimum investment.The investor will indicate an intention to invest a minimum amount at fixed intervals, such as montly or quarterly. Fixed dollar amount is invested periodically. Fixed share amount is invested periodically. Redemption fee is calculated based on NAV. Mutual funds are required under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to pay the proceeds of re demption within 7 calendar days. The SEC can order or allow, upon the request of a fund, that redemption be suspended fo ? Fixed-dollar Types of Withdrawal Plans ? Fixed-percentage ? Fixed-share Taxation of Mutual Fund Distributions Earnings for Investment ?Investment income(dividends & interest on the securities) Companies ? Capital gain Investors will receive a Form 1099 to report distributions for income tax purpose. They may elect to Form 1099 take distributions from mutual funds in the form of reinvested shares rather than in the form of cash. Investment Income Dividends & interest on the securities. Taxable to the investors as ordinary income. When an asset is sold for more than its cost, the result is a capital gain. ? Long-term gains ? Result from the sale of assets held for more than 1 year / taxed as capital gain Capital Gain ? Short-term gains ?Result from the sale of assets held for 1 year or less / taxed as ordinary income Capital gains are taxed at the individual's tax rate, up to a maximum of 20%. Holders of one fund in the group may have an exchange or conversion privilege allowing them to Exchange Privilege convert to another fund of the same manager at the NAV. Investment companies can avoid paying taxes on income since they are eligible for special tax Taxation of Investment treatment under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code. This special tax treatment is called Companies the â€Å"conduit† or â€Å"pipeline† treatment.Avoid triple taxation which would occur if the mutual fund paid taxes. The companies held in the fund's portfolio pay corporate income taxes and the investor pays taxes on dividends received from the fund. Therefore, taxes payable on dividends and interes Conduit / Pipeline Chapter 13 Conduit / Pipeline Investment Companies Corporatoi n in Portfolio Mutual Fund Dividen Investors Regulated Investment Companies The investment companies that meet certain requirements under Subchapter M are considered to be re gulated investment companies. Chapter 13 Reporting Requirements 300% Asset CoverageInvestment Companies Annual report must be sent to the SEC and semiannual reports must be sent to the shareholders. Investment Company Rules and Regulations Management companies(open-end & closed-end) are subject to 300% asset coverage to control their leverage, therey reducing risk. NASD Rules on Investment Companies Selling Fund Shares NASD members may not purchase fund shares at a discount from an underwriter unless the underwriter is also an NASD member. This effectively restricts non-member underwriters from distributing their shares through NASD firms. NASD members must transmit payApplied to the practice of inducing an investor to purchase a mutual fund on the basis of an impending dividend. The investor was induced to buy the stock based on the impending dividend. However, had the investor waited until ex-dividend date, the price Occurs when a registered representative does not inform a custom er about the availability of a Breakpoint Sale sales breakpoint or a LOI. The Anti-Reciprocal Rule of the Prohibits member firms from selling open-end investment company(mutual fund) shares because NASD of commissions received or to be received from the investment company.An underwriter of investment company shares is prohibited from giving a member firm any Special Deals discount above the one specified in the selling agreement for the sale of the shares. If a RR retires, he or she may continue to receive commissions for sales of investment company Continuing Commissions periodic payment plans initiated prior to the retirement if there was a bona fide contract with the person's firm to receive such commissions. Selling Dividends Chapter 13 Investment CompaniesInvestment Company Advertising and Sales Literature SEC Rule 134 Permits the publication of a simple ad describing the basic features of a new issue. Permits the use of ad that describes, in general terms, how investment compa nies work. The SEC Rule 135A communication must be limited to information re. investment companies in general, or to the nature of investment companies. Permits the publication of an investment company ad that satisfies the definition of a prospectus SEC Rule 482 under certain conditions. This ad may NOT contain an application ot invest in the investment company.SEC Rule 156 Sales Literature Real Estate Investment Trust(REIT) Tax Treatment Difference between Appreciation & Capital Gain Warns that sales literature would be considered misleading if it 1)contained an untrue statement of material fact, 2)omitted a material fact that was necessary to make a statement not misleading. Any sales literature re. redeemable investment company securities must be filed with the SEC within 10 days of use. Similar to an investment company but is not considered to be a type of investment company.He manages a portfolio of real estate oriented investments to earn profits for investors. To qualify as a REIT, a company must be set up as a domestic corporation m REITs are the favorable tax treatment given under the REIT Act Amendment to the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. If 95% of the ordinary income generated from the portfolio is distributed to investors, REIT is taxed only once. Appreciation : An increase in the market price of a security from the purchase price. Capital Gain : Recognized when the security is sold and the appreciation is realized.

Objective Relations Theory

Projective Identification copyright 1996 Hannah Fox, CSW, BCD All rights reserved – may not be reproduced without permission of Hannah Fox ([email  protected] com) This document can be found at: http://www. object-relations. com This presentation will explore several concepts and techniques within the Object Relations theory of family therapy which, if understood, provides a framework for looking at couples and families. Before talking about this approach to family therapy, I would like to explain what object relations theory is all about.Object Relations Theory was originated in England by a group of British psychoanalysts, including Klein, Balint, Fairburn, Winnicott, and Guntrip. Object relations theory was a break from Freud's drive model, and differs from it as follows: Freud's model held that a newborn infant is driven by animal instincts, such as hunger, thirst, and pleasure, but cannot relate to others. Relationships with others only develop later in the course of sa tisfying those needs. In this sense, Freud's model considers relationships to be secondary.In contrast, object relations theory maintains that the infant can relate to others at a very early age and that relationships with others are, therefore, primary. The drive to attach oneself to an object is considered to be the major motivating force. Since we are talking about object relations theory, this is a good time to ask what an object is. In object relations theory, the word object is used with a very specific meaning. It's not literally a physical person, but an internal mental structure that is formed throughout early development.This mental structure is built through a series of experiences with significant others through a psychic process called introjection. Because an infant's earliest experiences are usually with its mother, she is usually the first internal object formed by the infant. Eventually, the father and other significant people also become internalized objects. Intro jection, the process of creating internal mental objects, leads to another process called splitting. Splitting occurs because the infant cannot tolerate certain feelings such as rage and longing, which occur in all normal development.As a result, the infant has to split off parts of itself and repress them. What happens to those repressed split-off parts? They are dealt with through another important process, called projective identification. Projective identification itself is a very specific part of object relations theory. It is a defense mechanism which was conceptualized by Melanie Klein in 1946, having evolved from her extensive study and work with children. According to Klein, projective identification consists of splitting off parts of the self, projecting them into another person, and then identifying with them in the other person.For example, the earliest relationship the infant has with its mother is feeding and touching, but the mother is not always able to respond quick ly enough to the infant's need. Since the natural rage and longing the infant feels at such times are intolerable, to survive these feelings the infant â€Å"splits them off† and represses them from its consciousness. The â€Å"split off†feelings can be thought of as other parts of the self (ego). When such splitting takes place, the infant is free of the rage but has placed that part of itself inside the mother.To make itself whole again it must identify with the mother. The mother may or may not allow herself to become the cntainer for the infant's negative feelings. Even if she doesn't, the projective identification still occurs. The above process begins in the first half year of life, known as the paranoid-schizoid position. It is characterized by an ability to distinguish good feelings from bad, but an inability to distinguish the mother from the self. Depending on how consistent the mothering is, the infant may or may not progress to a higher level of development known as the depressive position.In the depressive position, which starts at about eight months of age, the child takes back its bad feelings from the mother and separates from her. The mother is now seen as a separate object, with both good and bad feelings of her own. The infant is aware of its own good and bad feelings. For a child to reach this level of development, the earlier mothering must be consistent. The mother must have accepted most of the child's projected feelings. A child who reaches the depressive position will, in adulthood, be capable of experiencing, at best, such feelings as empathy, or will at least become neurotic.In contrast, if the mothering is not consistent, the child can't take back its projected feelings and splitting continues both inside and outside the child. It remains in the paranoid-schizoid position or, at best, a precarious form of the depressive position. This type of development is associated with borderline personalities. In the above infant- mother example, the repressed parts of the self, if unresolved, will remain repressed into adulthood. Those parts will govern the choice of marital partner and the nature of marital relationships, and by extension the nature of relationships with children.By the time the couple or family come to therapy the projective identification process has likely progressed to the point of being obvious to the therapist, and will be seen in the members' behavior toward each other. This is usually not so in individual therapy because it often takes time to build the transference relationship with the therapist. So what does this mean for the therapist? What does a therapist have to know in order to work with a family, using the object relations approach? The therapist needs to be trained in individual developmental heory from infancy to aging and to understand that the internal object world is built up in a child, modified in an adult and re-enacted in the family. The family has a developmental life cycle of its own, and as it goes through its series of tasks from early nurturing of its new members, to emancipation of its adolescents, to taking care of its aging members, the family's adaptation is challenged at every stage by unresolved issues in the adult members' early life cycle. Conflicts within any of its individual family members may threaten to disrupt the adaption previously achieved.If any member is unable to adapt to new development, pathology, like projective identification, becomes a stumbling block to future healthy development. The clinical approach is to develop, with the family, an understanding of the nature and origins of their current interactional difficulties, starting from their experience in the here- and-now of the therapeutic sessions, and exploring the unconscious intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts that are preventing further healthy development. Interpretation and insight are thus the agents of family change.By uncovering the projective ide ntifications that take place among family members, and having individuals take back their split-off parts, members can be freed to continue healthy development. If further therapy is indicated, individual therapy would be a recommendation. Symptom reduction in individuals is not necessarily a goal here. In fact, individual family members may become more symptomatic as projective identificationsare taken back and the members become more anxious. To do this, the therapist needs the following four capabilities: . The ability to provide a â€Å"holding environment†for the family – a place which is consistent – so that eventually the family comes to feel comfortable enough to be themselves in the presence of the therapist. 2. An ability to understand the â€Å"theme†of each session, so that a broad theme can be identified over the course of treatment. 3. An ability to interpret the latent content of patients' manifest statements. 4. An understanding of unconsc ious processes like transference and countertransference.Given those tools, it is the therapist's job to uncover the projective identifications in the family that prevent the children from having a healthy development. Once these projections are uncovered, and the split-off parts given back to the family members they belong to, children are freer to continue healthy development. Having introduced projective identification, I'd like to show how this process operates later in life-in couples and families-and is a framework for doing couple and family therapy. I'm going to present two cases-one of a couple and one of a family-to show how projective identification works.A male patient of mine with little ambition fell in love with a woman who subsequently pushed him to be ambitious. As it turned out, the woman had been repressing her own ambition under pressure from a father who didn't believe women should work. This woman was quite intelligent and obtained a professional degree, yet sh e chose to stifle her ambition in order to please her father. She remained dependent on her father, both emotionally and financially. The husband, my patient, was a professional but quite unambitious. His family's philosophy was that one is lucky to have a job and pay the bills.His father had held the same low paying job for twenty years although he, too, had a professional degree. So why did these two people get married? Since it was unacceptable for her to be ambitious, the wife needed someone to contain those feelings for her. My patient was the ideal object because, although he had an inner ambition, he had no parental support for these strivings. Therefore, he was predisposed to accept and collude in his wife's projection. What is the effect of projective identification when a couple has children?The following example shows how parents use their children as objects. Fern was a woman in her second marriage with two adolescent children. When Fern was a child, her mother favored h er brother. The message she received from her mother was that men were important and had to be taken care of, while women were stupid and born to serve men. Both of Fern's husbands agreed with her mother's philosophy, so Fern spent most of her married life serving them. When the family came to see me, both children were having emotional problems. The son was a heavy user of pot and cocaine.His sister had emotional and learning problems in school. Fern had projected into her son that males were special and needed to be taken care of. It's not hard to see why the son colluded with his mother. The rewards of accepting her projected feelings were too hard to resist, so when he reached adolescence he satisfied his excessive dependency needs with drugs. The message Fern's daughter received was that she was unimportant and stupid. Why did Fern project these feelings onto her daughter? Fern grew up unable to develop her own career goals because her other ignored her wishes to go to college. For Fern to feel sufficiently competent and achieve some career success, she had to get rid of feelings that she was stupid and unimportant. So she projected those feelings on to her daughter and was then able to start a small business. To avoid being totally rejected by her mother, the daughter colluded by remaining stupid and unimportant to herself. Fern's reenactment with her daughter of her mother's relationship with her is a form of projective identification called â€Å"identification with the aggressor,†because Fern is acting as if she is her own mother and her daughter is her (when she was a child).Fern's relationship to her son is also similar to the relationship Fern's mother had to Fern's brother. Because Fern is treating her children so differently, when they grow up they will have very different views of this family. This explains why, in therapy, siblings often talk about the same family very differently. Notice how unresolved feelings from childhood, which Fern split off and repressed, greatly affected her relationship with both children. What do you think is going on in her second marriage? Now I will present an actual transcript of part of a session I recently had with this family.As you will see, it illustrates the process of projective identification and will serve as a basis for further discussion. T: Fern, I wonder, when Donald was talking about being like Roberta and John asked him a question how did you feel? F: What do you mean how did I feel? T: When John asked Donald when he figured out that he was like Roberta and Donald said just now. J: How do you feel about him saying just now. T: And you changed the subject and I wondered what you were feeling. F: I don't know. I T: Donald owned up to some feelings that he was like his father and that part of what he saw in Roberta was like himself.F: Donald is definitely part of D: No but what she's saying is that you changed the subject. That is why she's wondering if you have some feeli ngs about that. T: Exactly. You seemed to have moved away from what was going on here. John was talking to Donald R: She doesn't want us to be like our father. T: Maybe that was upsetting to you? R: He wasn't good to her. D: Subconsciously maybe. It's deep but it's there. F: Well, I don't like Martin, naturally. It's true. I don't like him – I don't think he's a nice person. R: You don't like him at all? D: She loves him but doesn't like himF: I loved him but I never liked him as a person. I never thought he was a good person; that he really cared about me, that he took care of me, that he was ever concerned with me. I remember a couple of things that – I remember having a bloody nose one night when I was pregnant and he went out to play racketball and left me alone. Things like that – He was mean to me – he had no compassion for me. D: That's one thing, I'm not like my father. F: I'm not saying – I'm trying to say I see certain characteristics of their father in them. T: How does that make you feel?F: How does that make me feel? I don't know. I guess part of it, not too good because I would rather them be above that, that is, above that anger, why can't they rise above that anger. I don't want them to be like that because it didn't get Martin anyplace in life. J: I have a very deep question. F: I don't know if I want to answer it. J: You may not but how can you find that with Roberta and Donald being so much alike in prsonality, like Martin, how do you separate Donald's being like Martin and accepting it from Roberta and saying Roberta is just like her father and not accepting it?F: Because Donald never directed his anger at me as a person, as a human being. In other words he never – he might have been angry but he never said to me – he never was mean to me, whereas Roberta has been mean to me, attacked me as a person, Donald never attacked me as a person. T: Donald attacked himself as a person. D: Hmm. T: By t aking drugs. F: But he never attacked me as a person. D: Never, I'm not a mean person. I don't have that mean streak in me. T: You sure? F: You may have it in you D: I don't have a mean streak. F: Sure, everyone T: Who did you direct that meanness to?Roberta directs it out to her mother and who did you direct it to? D: I direct it to her. T: No R: No you directed it at yourself. D: Myself, yeah – I'm mean to myself. F: You were destructive to yourself. T: So what D: But that's different from being destructive to other human beings. F: No, maybe you would have been better off being mean to me or somebody else. Or to your father. R: Let's get back to Uncle John's question. J: No this is part of the answer. D: Yeah – I'm mean to myself. I still am. But I don't destroy myself with anything – with any kind of substances, but I still am.R: What do you mean, you still are? D: I'm hard on myself, critical of myself. R: See, you would never think that of Donald because h e walks around like he's above the world. He does. T: But why would somebody walk – D: But I've been working on that very heavily now T: But why would someone D: That's the way I am; it's the way I am. T: Why would someone walk around like that. D: It's very basic – when I was on drugs and everything like that and I'm fully aware of it, aware that I'm conceited and like I have that air about me – I'm fully aware of it.When I was on drugs I had that part to me but it wasn't as strong as it is now. T: You weren't aware of it then? D: I wasn't really in control of the fact that I control my conceitedness now – I choose to put that on because I have nothing, I have nothing else now. T: Right D: It seems it's like my only defense, to be arrogant and to be conceited because I don't have anything else to back me up so I figure that wall. R: Why do you need – I don't need anything. D: Roberta – because when I was on the drugs and everything like tha t, it was a great wall for me to keep everybody out.Now I want everybody to think big things. Discussion Now let's look at the latent content of this session and identify the projective identifications. Fern was angry at Roberta and not at Donald — why? As John pointed out with his question, Fern saw Roberta and Donald very differently, because of her projective identifications into them. Fern saw Roberta as bad and stupid, just as her mother viewed her when she was a child. She put all her badness and negative feelings into Roberta. Roberta then acted out Fern's feelings by being emotionally disturbed and acting stupid.Her emotional problems exacerbated what had been a genuine perceptual impairment. Because of her projective identification, Fern saw Donald as the good son who needed special attention and care, which was what Fern had seen between her own mother and her brother. Because Donald was not fully accepted by his mother, especially for those qualities that were like his natural father, he acted out his mother's feelings. He was good to her but repressed the rejected parts, turning them against himself by secretly taking drugs. Yet, his mother continued to hold him in high regard, even after his habit had been found out.What Fern did was re-create the family constellation in which she had grown up. Because both children were carrying out their mother's inner life, they were unable to grow and develop their own healthy structures. The next step in therapy was to get Fern to take back the split-off parts of herself: the devaluing of her daughter and the overvaluing of her son. This should help the children take back the part of themselves which they split off and repressed. In subsequent sessions, Fern and I explored what it was like growing up with her mother.She explained that her mother told her that she was stupid and that her brother was special. Fern's daughter told Fern that she was doing the same thing as her mother and that the daughter felt stupid. Fern responded that she had never meant to treat her daughter as stupid. She also realized that her son had many problems and was not so special. In doing so, Fern reclaimed her split-off parts, freeing her daughter to continue a healthier development. Her son was able to leave home and become more independent.

Typhoons essays

Typhoons essays Typhoons, what are they and how hazardous are they? When I started searching for my article, I came across the word typhoons; it sparked an interest in wanting to know what it was and how hazardous it could be. Typhoons are tropical cyclones that occur in the western Pacific or Indian oceans. They are basically what we call Hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E. In China one of the natural hazards include frequent typhoons, about 5 per year along the southern and eastern coast. This year one of the most powerful storms of the season and one of the most powerful typhoons since 1997 hit in August. The typhoon was named Rananim, which means hello in the Chuukesse language. I found an article about Rananim on CNN.com (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WEATHER/o8/14/china.typhoon/index.html) The storm hit land on Thursday night in the city of Wenling. The winds were more than 160kph which is about 100mph, it weakened into a tropical storm as it moved west on Friday. The answer to the question Why I Care is I care about the injured people and animals, all the people who have lost there home, and because I need to be more knowledgeable about what goes on in the world, not just weather wise of course. A little over 410,000 people were evacuated from its path but still this storm injured over 1,800, killed 115, and 16 people were missing. The rain destroyed cropland and killed thousands of livestock. And more than 42,000 houses were destroyed and tens of thousands damaged. The only positive that came from Rananim is that it is expected to help relieve drought and heat waves that are effecting much of Eastern China. In conclusion, typhoons are tropical cyclones that affect many people, but also have a positive aspect in some places. The Typhoon Rananim affected China very greatly you can see this by the big numbers in the ...

Adopting a Start-up Mentality for your Books Reedsy

Adopting a Start-up Mentality for your Books Reedsy Adopt A Startup Mentality For Your Books - By Dr. Sean Wise â€Å"I think I’m the only person who has made the authors into Lego people†At the Reedsy blog, we like to bring together the publishing world and the tech world. We think authors can learn a lot from entrepreneurs (and vice-versa), and today’s interview is dedicated to just that.Dr. Sean Wise is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor, mentor and successful author. He just released his latest book, Startup Opportunities, that he co-wrote with Brad Feld. How do two of the most successful startup investors out there go about marketing their book? Sean shares their secrets on how they engage with readers (careful, it involves Lego figures).He also gives his perspective on the changes the publishing industry is undergoing and on a few startups contributing to its disruption.If you want to see him drive through Toronto in a cab, get out, and walk home - all while chatting with us - just play the video, it’s awesome. Else, the transcript is just below! Dr. Sean Wise, it’s great to have you here. You’re a teacher at Ryerson university on entrepreneurship, are a mentor, advisor and investor, and have been involved with startups pretty much all your life, right? Could you give us a bit of background on that?Absolutely! I was born very, very young, and I grew from there. At 13 I had an experience that confirmed to me that I would never make a good employee and I started my first business. I’m now 43 and I have started 5 of my own businesses, but for the most of my working career I’ve been a venture capitalist. So I’ve been an entrepreneur, a ‘funder’, a founder, a mentor, and all of that has been to accomplish one goal: to help entrepreneurs succeed. Help people fail faster, learn quicker, etc. All of my books to date have been around that topic.That’s fantastic. And talking about your books, you wrote your first book and self-published it in 2007, back when digital publishing almo st wasn’t a thing. Why did you choose the self-publishing route?Well, I think you’d call it self-publishing. I had written a column for the Globe and Mail, which is a national newspaper in Canada, and at the end of a two-year run as a columnist on entrepreneurship, they asked if I’d like to wrap all the articles together, put a cover on it, and publish it. So they published it with me. It was â€Å"self-publishing† because we owned 100% of it, but it was edited and pushed out by a newspaper chain, so it was a very unique experience.My second book was bought by a large publisher called Penguin: it was How To Be A Business Super Hero and it combined my love for comic books with my need to help people understand that business isn’t only about money.For my third book, which came out three years ago, I went back to self-publishing. I published it with a magazine called Profit Magazine, and it’s another book about entrepreneurship called Hot or No t. In Canada (like in England) we have a version of that great TV show called Dragon’s Den (it’s now in 27 countries) and I spent 5 seasons working there to help entrepreneurs get the funding they needed to succeed.Now, full circle for my latest book: FG Press is half self-publishing, half traditional publishing. It’s really a startup publishing brand that is trying to figure out what publishing isn’t doing well at all, and what can be done better.Yes, FG Press is one of these actors that shows how exciting the publishing industry is in its current state. What is it that has changed, exactly, and how do you see it moving forwards?Well, I’m not smart enough to talk about what everyone else is talking about, but I know what I am excited about, so I’ll focus on that. For many many years, the publishing industry has been pretty much like the music industry or the film industry: you had these experts; and these experts, whether they were editors or acquisitions people, were in charge of deciding what the world needed. Without an editor’s blessing, you couldn’t have a book: there was no one to publish or distribute it.But like with most things, the internet has had a dramatic effect on the distribution portion of books. Now that books are digital, we know they’re just like Napster was for music: you can send them over email, you can move them digitally, you can read them on your phone, etc. So it’s made distribution a lot easier. Combine that with Amazon’s self-publishing tools, with Goodread’s ability to engage your authors, with Wattpad that can replace your editor with fans, and you really have eliminated the ability of one superstar sitting there and saying â€Å"your book isn’t good enough†.Now, that’s a double-edged sword. Now that there is no longer some expert that you need to tell, there also is no filter, so the biggest problem with publishing today is that anyone can publish. So how do you get past that?Exactly, and I think that’s a question for all forms of content in general, now that we have user-generated content, right?Absolutely. So it’s not a matter of whether my book is good or not, it’s a matter of whether I can get into people’s funnel: â€Å"can I get them to think about my book, can I resonate with them?† as opposed to â€Å"can I get on the shelves at Barnes and Noble?†.And that’s why it’s so important to build a readership before you publish your book. Which is exactly what you’re doing right now with Brad Feld. You’ve co-authored a book with him, Startup Opportunities, and you’re pretty much everywhere around the world talking about that book!Yes, I’m surprised - but happily so - , it looks like we’re going to have a 20-city book tour. We started last week with 5 cities in Canada, and we’re going to move from there ac ross the US, and who knows, if we’re blessed, we’ll even come to Europe!We’re doing that to build a readership and to engage with our users. It’s very similar if you’re aware of The Lean Startup. That book says that before you sink millions and millions of dollars into building a product, check if anyone cares.So before Brad and I got too deep in this book we started talking to readers, startups, just to ask them questions and to really understand what the need was. So we really based this book, Startup Opportunities, on the idea that people should not start stupid startups, that the problem isn’t just â€Å"how to start a company?†.Before we even launched, we had sold 1500 copies. And I can only hope that that continues and that we’re able to find something that resonates with our readers.What kind of out-of-the box marketing have you done for this book that could inspire other non-fiction authors out there?I think I’m the only person who has made the authors into Lego people. So Brad and I have Lego people that will travel with us, and if people want to tweet a picture of us and them, they’ve got to tweet the little Lego people and whoever tweets that and gets the most retweets, will get their own Lego figures, custom-made for them.I’ve never seen anyone make action figures out of authors and I thought that was kind of fun. So that was pretty unusual. The book tour is pretty standard, the Twitter is pretty standard. We did an infographics and a slideshare, too, which are now also pretty standard.Where do you find your inspiration for all this? I think the greatest thing about the transparency the internet allows, is that everyone can learn from everyone. So I wouldn’t want you to think that all these ideas are mine. I’ve stolen them from other successful authors. In fact, as a professor of entrepreneurship I teach that to my students: â€Å"steal with integrity and pr ide everywhere†. I try to give full attribution: I follow Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, they’re sort of my â€Å"author idols†, and I try to see what they’re doing and learn.But as far as I know, I am the only person who has a Lego version of Brad Feld and a Lego version of me.And that’s really really cool. It’s actually the mindset that certain authors in publishing are missing: what could I do that would be cool for my readers, or cool in general?I think, people look at Brad Feld and he’s got 5 or 6 bestsellers, he’s a multi-millionaire, a successful venture capitalist; but they don’t realise that his goal is still the same as every other author: to connect with the readers. All of these new tools are just ways to connect, and I think they’re fabulous because they cut out the middle person.I agree. Talking about â€Å"new tools† if you had to find two startups in the publishing industry that you find partic ularly interesting and are going to follow closely, which would they be? I’m a big fan of Goodreads. I know they’re owned by Amazon right now and that makes them not a startup, but I just think connecting your readers with your authors is so important.If I couldn’t choose Goodreads, I might choose Wattpad. They’ve got about 25 million readers and allows authors to put manuscripts up and get feedback. I’m much more interested in what other founders think about my book than what my father thinks about my book. I want to hear directly from them. Amazing authors who have millions of readers are using Wattpad to engage with them and get their books even tighter. So Wattpad would be one.I’m also another big fan of changing business models. So I found Netflix to be nice because it disrupted Blockbuster. And I think what Scribd is doing with comic books, audiobooks and digital books, this â€Å"all you can eat for $9.99†, is going to impact t he business in a disruptive way. I used to buy my comic books every week at the comic book store. And then I evolved into the digital comic book store, called Comixology. Then, I moved from Comixology, when they got bought by Amazon, to directly purchasing from Amazon.Now Scribd comes along, and it has over 100,000 comic books from Marvel, from Image, and all the things that I love, and instead of paying $30 a month in comic book sales, I pay $9,99. So it caters to another demographic. When I was young, for my birthday, I would always ask for some money for the comic book store. But now I don’t need that, I would ask for a subscription to Scribd, for $9.99.These are part of this bigger ecosystem that’s developing and what I think is most interesting is that it’s developing exactly the same. iTunes is the same as Kindle. Netflix is the same as Next Issue for magazines or Oyster for books or Scribd for comic books.So for me, if I look at the next 5 years, which is what I like to invest on - not companies that are amazing today, but companies that will be amazing in 2020 - I ask myself: what is the next revolution going to be? How do we emulate what’s going on in the music business in the book business? How can I increase my tour sales and keep my book sales up? How do I accept to give an album away for free?Brad and I actually discussed whether we should do a â€Å"pay what you can† model. Radiohead did that for music and they made more money than they would have if they had sold at $9.99. Again, I think these things are still in flux, and we live in an unbelievable time, because every industry is changing, and publishing is just slow because it has very big anchor tenants.Thank you so much for these insights, and for your time, Sean. I look forward to reading Startup Opportunities!Follow Dr. Sean Wise and Reedsy on Twitter:  @SeanWise  and @ReedsyHQWhat kind of out-of-the-box marketing have you  done for your book? How do you build your readership? Which publishing startups do you think are going to succeed? Leave us your thoughts, or any question for Sean, in the comments below!