Comparing Japan and Russias Response before 1914 Essay Example for Free

Comparing Japan and Russias Response before 1914 Essay In the early 19th century Russian rulers did anything in their power to keep the French plague from infiltrating Russia. The French Plague was a gradual move towards freedom and a more influential say in government. Russia avoided the French Plague by a period of isolation and oppression of their people. Japan also had a long period of isolation. The Japanese believed in the Mandate of Heaven or that there culture was the best. Because of their ethnocentric culture, only one Japanese port, Nagasaki, was open to traders once a year. During the late 19th century, both Russia and Japan were forced to make reforms and modernize by industrialization. They both had to do so rapidly because of Western interference and the Wests increasing power in trade. During the early 20th century, Russia and Japan had managed to reform, industrialize, and make sufficient changes to build powerful nations, although they still couldnt compete with the Wests supreme military and technological strength. The industrialization process for both Russia and Japan began during the same time period because of this they both shared many similar industrial responses, but also contrasted in many ways. Both Russia and Japan had some common characteristics, which explained how they kept independent from Western interference for such a long period of time. The two nations both new that learning from outsiders could profit them and not necessarily destroy their culture. Industrialization was easy for them because they followed a system of borrow and improve from other countries. Through Japans Tokugawa shogunate and Russias tsarist empire, both nations improved their political success. Instead, they used the state to pay for changes that in the West was backed by private businesses. In both Russia and Japan their rulers received more power. By emancipating the Russian serfs and the peasant class, both nations had a large labor force. Besides similarities there were also many differences in both nations responses to industrialization. Women were treated very differently in both Russian and Japanese societies, in society and in the home. The education of their people was another contrast because in Japan the literacy levels were higher. In Japan, market forms were more extensive going into peasant agriculture. As Russia possessed more land they automatically had more natural resources then did Japan. Japan and Russian responses to government reform was also a major factor of industrialization. The similarities between Russia and Japan were many. Russia and Japan were able to industrialize so easily because of past imitation experience. Japan copied from China and Russia from the Byzantine Empire. Japan took the Confucian system from China and other scientific and medical knowledge. Russia borrowed its bureaucratic rule from Byzantium. They felt that taking from other cultures would not destroy their own. During industrialization, both Japan and Russia managed to keep their own cultures and religions despite their increased borrowing from the West. In the West private businesses backed entrepreneurs, where as in Russia and Japan the entrepreneurs were provided for by the state because of lack of technology and resources. Russian landlords happily took advantage of Western markets for grain, they increased their exports by tightening the labor obligations of the serfs. Russias agricultural society was based on serf labor. The Crimean War fought on the Black Sea between the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France against Russia. The loss was a huge blow to Russia whom realized that they needed to drastically improve their technology and their military. Tsar Alexander II knew that the only way to develop a mobile labor force to industrialize was to free the serfs. The emancipitation of the serfs in 1861 fulfilled Russias need for cheap flexible labor. Japan similarly needed a larger labor force to industrialize. In Japan the peasants whom were kicked off their land moved to cities to work in factories. The samurai, who were replaced by technology and armies, became another part of the labor force when they were no longer provided for by the state. In both nations the political power was centralized. The tsar appointed zemstvoes, or local political councils that regulated roads, schools and other regional policies. The zemstvoes undertook important inquiries into local problems. They owed the tsars complete and utter loyalty. In Japan in 1871 when the new Meiji government took over they abolished feudalism, replacing the daimyos with a system of nationally appointed prefects. Prefects are district administrators who are picked from different regions. The prefects like the Russian zemstvoes owed complete loyalty to the emperor. The Meiji rulers began to widen the power of the state to effect social and economic change. Another similarity was that both Russia and Japan improved their military.  Russias officer corps was reformed by promotion by merit and newly organized essential services. Peasants were able to be recruited and they learned new skills from their military service. In Japan a stronger military unit replaced the samurai with weapons, advanced technology, and a high sense of organization. Industrialization was part of the greater process of change. The trans-Siberian railroad connected European Russia with the Pacific Ocean. The railroad directly expanded Russias coal and iron sectors. The Railroad also fueled the export of grain to the West, which became necessary to earn foreign currency for advanced Western machinery. As a result of the railroad, Siberia was opened to development and brought Russia into a more active Asian role. Factories began to be built in all cities by the goods that were transported by the railroad. In Japan also there was attention focused on making the conditions necessary for industrialization. State wide railroads were built across the country and rapid steamers connected the islands. Agricultural output was raised by new methods to feed the people of the growing cities. There were also many differences in Japan and Russias response to industrialization. The literacy rates in Japan were much higher then that of Russia. Japan followed the Confucian teachings. Commoner schools or terakoya provided reading, writing, and the basic Confucianism to ordinary people. During the mid 19th century over 40% of all men were literate and about 15% of women were too. There were also Dutch study schools in all the major cities teaching the students to throw out Chinese influence and to adapt the Wests. Where as Russias educational reforms werent as progressive and were very limited. Schools were spread out unevenly although there were some attempts for a state sponsored education. Womens position both in the home and in society varied between the two nations greatly. Women in Russia had a chance to get a greater education and some even progressed far enough to get jobs in medicine. In Russia during the 1860s-1870s, women started taking more control over the home scene particularly in urban work areas. In Japan, womens position in society was  the exact opposite. Women were treated as inferior while the men were honored. Women were also forced to work in sweatshops or were sold into service by farm families. Russian and Japanese reforms in government were also different. For Russia to reform the government against the tsars there were many revolts and in Japan it was mostly agreed upon. Most high-class business people wanted to have a greater say in government in Russia, they wanted to enact liberal reforms. The intellects, or intelligentsia, became very active when the educated youth started some revolts. The anarchists of Russia wanted to destroy all forms of government, especially the tsarist autocracy. The anarchist radicals soon resorted to violent means of getting their point across, resulting in terrorism. . As a result, many revolts and acts of violence persisted in order to gain reform and to abolish the czarist regime itself, Russia, as a nation was severely unstable. This resulted in the creation of the Duma, or known as the Russian national parliament. Japans approach to government reform was different. They reformed in a more or less gradual and peaceful way. Meiji rulers traveled to discover up to date political reforms. In the year 1884 they constructed a conservative nobility, with former nobles and Meiji leaders would run a House of Peers (modeled after Britain). The bureaucracy was opened to talent by civil service examinations. Finally in 1889, the constitution was passed allowing Japans emperor limited power in the Diet, the new parliament. Parliament could advise government but not directly control it. Finally, Russia and Japan responses to industrialization differed because of the natural resources they possessed. Russia contained abundant amounts of coal and iron, both necessary for industrialization such as trains of the time. Russia naturally had more resources because of the amount of land under Russian rule. By 1900, Russia had  surged to fourth rank in the world in steel production and was second to the United States in the petroleum production and refining. Where as Japan and was dependent on the West for there industrialization needs. This was a disadvantage for Japan their success depended on the world trade market. The beginnings of industrialization in Russia and Japan, contributed greatly to the Worlds trade market and cultures. Both Russia and Japan modernized in there own unique way, Russia with revolutions and Japan with their nationalistic reforms. Without their rapid industrialization and influence on world affairs, today as we know it wouldnt be the same.

The History Of The Digital Watermarking Techniques

The History Of The Digital Watermarking Techniques Abstract Digital watermarking techniques have been developed to protect the copyright of media signals. This study aims to provide a universal review and background about the watermarking definition, concept and the main contributions in this field. The study will start with a general view of digital data, the Internet and the products of these two, namely, the multimedia and the e-commerce. The study will presents an extensive and deep literature review of the field of digital watermarking and watermarking algorithms. Introduction Digital watermarking techniques have been developed to protect the copyright of media signals. Different watermarking schemes have been suggested for multimedia content (images, video and audio signal). This study aims to provide an extensive literature review of the multimedia copyright protection. It presents a universal review and background about the watermarking definition, concept and the main contributions in this field. Digital Intellectual Property Information is becoming widely available via global networks. These connected networks allow cross-references between databases. The advent of multimedia is allowing different applications to mix sound, images, and video and to interact with large amounts of information (e.g., in e-business, distance education, and human-machine interface). The industry is investing to deliver audio, image and video data in electronic form to customers, and broadcast television companies, major corporations and photo archives are converting their content from analogue to digital form. This movement from traditional content, such as paper documents, analogue recordings, to digital media is due to several advantages of digital media over the traditional media. Some of these advantages are: The quality of digital signals is higher than that of their corresponding analogue signals. Traditional assets degrade in quality as time passes. Analogue data require expensive systems to obtain high quality copies, whereas digital data can be easily copied without loss of fidelity. Digital data (audio, image and video signals) can be easily transmitted over networks, for example the Internet. A large amount of multimedia data is now available to users all over the world. This expansion will continue at an even greater rate with the widening availability of advanced multimedia services like electronic commerce, advertising, interactive TV, digital libraries, and a lot more. Exact copies of digital data can be easily made. This is very useful but it also creates problems for the owner of valuable digital data like precious digital images. Replicas of a given piece of digital data cannot be distinguished and their origin cannot be confirmed. It is impossible to determine which piece is the original and which is the copy. It is possible to hide some information within digital data in such a way that data modifications are undetectable for the human senses. Copyright Protection of Intellectual Property An important factor that slows down the growth of multimedia-networked services is that authors, publishers and providers of multimedia data are reluctant to allow the distribution of their documents in a networked environment. This is because the ease of reproducing digital data in their exact original form is likely to encourage copyright violation, data misappropriation and abuse. These are the problems of theft and distribution of intellectual property. Therefore, creators and distributors of digital data are actively seeking reliable solutions to the problems associated with copyright protection of multimedia data. Moreover, the future development of networked multimedia systems, in particular on open networks like the Internet, is conditioned by the development of efficient methods to protect data owners against unauthorized copying and redistribution of the material put on the network. This will guarantee that their rights are protected and their assets properly managed. Copyright protection of multimedia data has been accomplished by means of cryptography algorithms to provide control over data access and to make data unreadable to non-authorized users. However, encryption systems do not completely solve the problem, because once encryption is removed there is no more control on the dissemination of data. The concept of digital watermarking arose while trying to solve problems related to the copyright of intellectual property in digital media. It is used as a means to identify the owner or distributor of digital data. Watermarking is the process of encoding hidden copyright information since it is possible today to hide information messages within digital audio, video, images and texts, by taking into account the limitations of the human audio and visual systems. Digital Watermarking: What, Why, When and How? It seems that digital watermarking is a good way to protect intellectual property from illegal copying. It provides a means of embedding a message in a piece of digital data without destroying its value. Digital watermarking embeds a known message in a piece of digital data as a means of identifying the rightful owner of the data. These techniques can be used on many types of digital data including still imagery, movies, and music. What is Digital Watermarking? A digital watermark is a signal permanently embedded into digital data (audio, images, video, and text) that can be detected or extracted later by means of computing operations in order to make assertions about the data. The watermark is hidden in the host data in such a way that it is inseparable from the data and so that it is resistant to many operations not degrading the host document. Thus by means of watermarking, the work is still accessible but permanently marked. Digital watermarking techniques derive from steganography, which means covered writing (from the Greek words stegano or covered and graphos or to write). Steganography is the science of communicating information while hiding the existence of the communication. The goal of steganography is to hide an information message inside harmless messages in such a way that it is not possible even to detect that there is a secret message present. Both steganography and watermarking belong to a category of information hiding, but the objectives and conditions for the two techniques are just the opposite. In watermarking, for example, the important information is the external data (e.g., images, voices, etc.). The internal data (e.g., watermark) are additional data for protecting the external data and to prove ownership. In steganography, however, the external data (referred to as a vessel, container, or dummy data) are not very important. They are just a carrier of the important information. The internal data are the most important. On the other hand, watermarking is not like encryption. Watermarking does not restrict access to the data while encryption has the aim of making messages unintelligible to any unauthorized persons who might intercept them. Once encrypted data is decrypted, the media is no longer protected. A watermark is designed to permanently reside in the host data. If the ownership of a digital work is in question, the information can be extracted to completely characterize the owner. Digital watermarking is an enabling technology for e-commerce strategies: conditional and user-specific access to services and resources. Digital watermarking offers several advantages. The details of a good digital watermarking algorithm can be made public knowledge. Digital watermarking provides the owner of a piece of digital data the means to mark the data invisibly. The mark could be used to serialize a piece of data as it is sold or used as a method to mark a valuable image. For example, this marking allows an owner to safely post an image for viewing but legally provides an embedded copyright to prohibit others from posting the same image. Watermarks and attacks on watermarks are two sides of the same coin. The goal of both is to preserve the value of the digital data. However, the goal of a watermark is to be robust enough to resist attack but not at the expense of altering the value of the data being protected. On the other hand, the goal of the attack is to remove the water mark without destroying the value of the protected data. The contents of the image can be marked without visible loss of value or dependence on specific formats. For example a bitmap (BMP) image can be compressed to a JPEG image. The result is an image that requires less storage space but cannot be distinguished from the original. Generally, a JPEG compression level of 70% can be applied without humanly visible degradation. This property of digital images allows insertion of additional data in the image without altering the value of the image. The message is hidden in unused visual space in the image and stays below the human visible threshold for the image. When Did the Technique Originate? The idea of hiding data in another media is very old, as described in the case of steganography. Nevertheless, the term digital watermarking first appeared in 1993, when Tirkel et al. (1993) presented two techniques to hide data in images. These methods were based on modifications to the least significant bit (LSB) of the pixel values. How Can We Build an Effective Watermarking Algorithm? It is desired that watermarks survive image-processing manipulations such as rotation, scaling, image compression and image enhancement, for example. Taking advantage of the discrete wavelet transform properties and robust features extraction techniques are the new trends that are used in the recent digital image watermarking methods. Robustness against geometrical transformation is essential since image-publishing applications often apply some kind of geometrical transformations to the image, and thus, an intellectual property ownership protection system should not be affected by these changes. Visible vs. Invisible Watermarks Digital watermarking is divided into two main categories: visible and invisible. The idea behind the visible watermark is very simple. It is equivalent to stamping a watermark on paper, and for this reason its sometimes said to be digitally stamped. An example of visible watermarking is provided by television channels, like BBC, whose logo is visibly superimposed on the corner of the TV picture. Invisible watermarking, on the other hand, is a far more complex concept. It is most often used to identify copyright data, like author, distributor, and so forth. Though a lot of research has been done in the area of invisible watermarks, much less has been done for visible watermarks. Visible and invisible watermarks both serve to deter theft but they do so in very different ways. Visible watermarks are especially useful for conveying an immediate claim of ownership (Mintzer, Braudaway Yeung, 1997). Their main advantage, in principle at least, is the virtual elimination of the commercial value of a document to a would-be thief, without lessening the documents utility for legitimate, authorized purposes. Invisible watermarks, on the other hand, are more of an aid in catching a thief than for discouraging theft in the first place (Mintzer et al., 1997; Swanson et al., 1998). Watermarking Classification There are different classifications of invisible watermarking algorithms. The reason behind this is the enormous diversity of watermarking schemes. Watermarking approaches can be distinguished in terms of watermarking host signal (still images, video signal, audio signal, integrated circuit design), and the availability of original signal during extraction (non-blind, semi-blind, blind). Also, they can be categorized based on the domain used for watermarking embedding process, as shown in Figure 1. The watermarking application is considered one of the criteria for watermarking classification. Figure 2 shows the subcategories based on watermarking applications. Figure 1: Classification of watermarking algorithms based on domain used for the watermarking embedding process Figure 2: Classification of watermarking technology based on applications Digital Watermarking Algorithms Current watermarking techniques described in the literature can be grouped into three main classes. The first includes the transform domain methods, which embed the data by modulating the transform domain signal coefficients. The second class includes the spatial domain techniques. These embed the watermark by directly modifying the pixel values of the original image. The transform domain techniques have been found to have the greater robustness, when the watermarked signals are tested after having been subjected to common signal distortions. The third class is the feature domain technique. This technique takes into account region, boundary and object characteristics. Such watermarking methods may present additional advantages in terms of detection and recovery from geometric attacks, compared to previous approaches. The algorithms in this study are organized according to their embedding domain, as indicated in Figure 1. These are grouped into: Spatial domain techniques Transform domain techniques Feature domain techniques However, due to the amount of published work in the field of watermarking technology, the main focus will be on wavelet-based watermarking technique papers. The wavelet domain is the most efficient domain for watermarking embedding so far. However, the review considers some other techniques, which serve the purpose of giving a broader picture of the existing watermarking algorithms. Some examples of spatial domain and fractal-based techniques will be reviewed. Spatial Domain Techniques This section gives a brief introduction to the spatial domain technique to gives some background information about watermarking in this domain. Many spatial techniques are based on adding fixed amplitude pseudo noise (PN) sequences to an image. PN sequences are used as the spreading key when considering the host media as the noise in a spread spectrum system, where the watermark is the transmitted message. In this case, the PN sequence is used to spread the data bits over the spectrum to hide the data. Transform Domain Techniques Many transform-based watermarking techniques have been proposed. To embed a watermark, a transformation is first applied to the host data, and then modifications are made to the transform coefficients. In this section, the state of the art of the current watermarking algorithms using the transform domain is presented. The section has three main parts, including discussions of waveletbased watermarking, DCT-based watermarking and fractal domain watermarking. Digital Watermarking Using Wavelet Decomposition This algorithm can easily be built into video watermarking applications based on a 3-D wavelet transform due to its simple structure. The hierarchical nature of the wavelet representation allows multi-resolutional detection of the digital watermark, which is a Gaussian distributed random vector added to all the high pass bands in the wavelet domain. Discrete Cosine Transform-Based Digital Watermarking Several watermarking algorithms have been proposed to utilize the DCT. However, the Cox et al. (1995, 1997) and the Koch and Zhao (1995) algorithms are the most well-known DCT-based algorithms. Cox et al. (1995) proposed the most well-known spread spectrum watermarking schemes. Figure 3 shows the block diagram of the Cox algorithm. The image is first subjected to a global DCT. Then, the 1,000 largest coefficients in the DCT domain are selected for watermarking. They used a Gaussian sequence of pseudo-random real numbers of length 1,000 as a watermark. This approach achieves good robustness against compression and other common signal processing attacks. This is a result of the selection of perceptually significant transform domain coefficients. However, the algorithm is in a weak position against the invariability attack proposed by Craver (1997). Also, the global DCT employed on the image is computationally expensive. Fractal Transform-Based Digital Watermarking Though a lot of work has been done in the area of invisible watermarks using the DCT and the wavelet-based methods, relatively few references exist for invisible watermarks based on the fractal transform. The reason for this might be the computational expense of the fractal transform. In fractal analysis, similar patterns are identified in an image and only a limited amount of binary code can be embedded using this method. Since fractal analysis is computationally expensive and some images do not have many large self-similar patterns, the techniques may not be suitable for general use. Feature Domain Techniques (Second Generation Watermarking) First generation watermarking (1GW) methods have been mainly focused on applying the watermarking on the entire image/video domain. However, this approach is not compatible with novel approaches for still image and video compression. JPEG2000 and MPEG4/7 standards are the new techniques for image and video compression. They are region or object-based, as can be seen in the compression process. Also, the 1GW algorithms proposed so far do not satisfy the watermarking requirements. Second generation watermarking (2GW) was developed in order to increase the robustness and invisibility and to overcome the weaknesses of 1GW. The 2GW methods take into account region, boundary and object characteristics and give additional advantages in terms of detection and recovery from geometric attacks compared to first generation methods. Exploiting salient region or object features and characteristics of the image achieve this. Also, 2GW methods may be designed so that selective robustness to different classes of attacks is obtained. As a result, watermark flexibility will be improved considerably. Digital Watermarking and Image Processing Attacks Digital watermarking was claimed to be the ultimate solution for copyright protection over the Internet when the concept of digital watermarking was first presented. However, some problems related to robustness and security of watermarking algorithms to intentional or unintentional attacks still remain unsolved. These problems must be solved before digital watermarking can be claimed to be the ultimate solution for copyright ownership protection in digital media. One of these problems is the effect of geometrical transformations such as rotation, translation and scaling on the recovery of the watermark. Another is the security of the watermarking algorithm when intentional attackers make use of knowledge of the watermarking algorithm to destroy or remove the watermark. Watermarking Standardization Issue The most important question about watermarking technology is whether watermarking will be standardized and used in the near future. There are several movements to standardize watermarking technology, but no one standard has prevailed at this moment in time. Some researchers have been working to develop a standardized framework for protecting digital images and other multimedia content through technology built into media files and corresponding application software. However, they have lacked a clear vision of what the framework should be or how it would be used. In addition, there was a discussion about how and whether watermarking should form part of the standard during the standardization process of JPEG2000. The requirements regarding security have been identified in the framework of JPEG2000. However, there has been neither in-depth clarification nor a harmonized effort to address watermarking issues. It is important to deduce what really needs to be standardized for including the watermarking concept in JPEG2000 and to what extent. The initial drafts of the JPEG2000 standard did not mention the issue of watermarking. However, there is a plan to examine how watermarking might be best applied within JPEG2000. The features of a given watermarking scheme are likely to offer designers an opportunity to integrate watermarking technology into JPEG2000 for different application such as distributing images on the Internet. Also, standardization of digital watermarking will influence the progress in imaging standards of JPEG2000 where the data se curity will be part of this standard. Therefore, the likelihood is that watermarking technology will be used in conjunction with JPEG2000 (Clark, 2000). Future Highlights Nevertheless, the future seems bright for digital watermarking. Many companies have already been active in digital watermarking research. For example, Microsoft has developed a prototype system that limits unauthorized playback of music by embedding a watermark that remains permanently attached to audio files. Such technology could be included as a default playback mechanism in future versions of the Windows operating system. If the music industry begins to include watermarks in its song files, Windows would refuse to play copyrighted music released after a certain date that was obtained illegally. Also, Microsoft Research has also invented a separate watermarking system that relies on graph theory to hide watermarks in software. Normally the security technology is hack able. However, if the technology is combined with proper legal enforcement, industry standards and respects of the privacy of individuals seeking to legitimately use intellectual property, digital watermarking will en courage content creators to trust the Internet more. There is a tremendous amount of money at stake for many firms. The value of illegal copies of multimedia content distributed over the Internet could reach billions of dollars a year. It will be interesting to see how the development and adoption of digital watermarking plays out. With such high stakes involved for entertainment and other multimedia companies, they are likely to keep pushing for (and be willing to pay for) a secure technology that they can use to track and reduce copyright violation and capture some of their foregone revenues. Finally, it is expected that a great deal of effort must still be put into research before digital image watermarking can be widely accepted as legal evidence of ownership. Conclusion This study was started with a general view of digital data, the Internet and the products of these two, namely, multimedia and e-commerce. It provided some initial background and history of digital watermarking. This study gave an extensive and deep literature review of the field of digital watermarking. The concept of digital watermarking and the requirements of digital watermarking were discussed and digital watermarking algorithms were reviewed. They were grouped into three main collections based on the embedding domain, that is, spatial domain techniques, transform domain techniques or feature domain techniques. The algorithm of the frequency domain were further subdivided into wavelet, DCT and fractal transform techniques. Finally, the future perspective of digital watermarking was highlighted.

Strategic Management of Honda in Vietnam

Strategic Management of Honda in Vietnam I Preface: In business today, a company can have a good finance, good technologies but they cant get the success without good strategic management. A company or an organization has good strategic management. They will find out the methods to manage and develop the company or organization. Strategic Management is a process refers to the answers of three questions: What are your companys targets? What is the best way to manage and meet targets requirement? What are the things you need in strategic management process? Strategic Management is started from determining the goals of the company, resource and necessary policies to implement the targets which are given. This process also includes how to promote and innovate products or service of the company. In my opinion, Strategic Management with a producing company is a process which includes Strategic in quality management of products, this process help a can provide best products to the customers. Through it, the company can attack new clients. Strategic in product management, this process includes auditing, checking and managing financial problem in the bank. Strategic in sales and marketing, through this process the company can know about their problem in customers relationship, what they have done well and what they need to change. In my assignment, I have research on SWOT and 5 forces which refer to strategic management of a producing car company. I think that SWOT and 5 forces are used in a particular industry and economy and they affect to business status and policies of Honda that I have researched. II Introduction: In March 2005, Honda Vietnam has received the license of Ministry and Planning and Investment Portal of Vietnam to allow Honda produces and assembles cars in Vietnam. This is an important history of Honda Vietnam; it marked the development of Honda Vietnam in Vietnam market. After one year and five months, Honda Vietnam has successful built factories and construction agency network. The company has completed the training programs, service and safe driving for employees and agents released first car model in August 2006. Since this time, Honda Vietnam is not only known as motor manufactures with product reputation, but also a manufacturer of automotive prestige in Vietnam market. Manufacture of Automobiles: Established: 2005 Office: Phuc Thang, Phuc Yen, Vinh Phuc province. Capital: Approximately $ 60 million Area: 17.000m2 Labor: 408 People Capacity: 10,000 cars per year Automotive manufacturing plant is equipped with machinery and equipment similar to the Honda plant in other countries with criteria focusing especially on quality, safe and friendly environment. Moreover, the plant also is equipped with engine assembly lines with the desired gradual localization of products Cars. In my assignment, I will focus on 2 problems SWOT and 5 forces and write about how it assist decision making and business of Honda Vietnam. III SWOT analysis: In this part, I will write about SWOT of Honda Vietnam which used to compare with their competitors in Vietnam market. A, SWOT analysis of Honda Vietnam: (S)trengths: Vietnam has a big population therefore, Honda has a large market to provide cars and recruit employees. Honda has good brand in Vietnam market so; it helps the company to sell well in Vietnam market. Honda Vietnam concentrates on advanced technology, high quality and class leading safety. Honda always focuses on world-class quality cars, even the smallest accessories. Hondas products (cars) have good quality and design. In addition, they have reasonable prices therefore they will attract more customers. Hondas cars have good speed and power but they consume low fuel therefore, it is suitable with Vietnam traffic with many traffic jams. In addition, it contributes to make minimize pollution. Honda always tries to develop and research new technology therefore, they will make their cars better with good speed, power and low fuel. The company has some promotion programs for customers such as: Customers who has received Honda Civic will receive VISA Debit card issued by a bank with value is 20 million VND. (W)eaknesses: Honda Vietnam focuses on producing and researching motorbike too much therefore they cannot spend much time for cars. There are only two models cars that produced by Honda Vietnam, Honda Civic and Honda CRV so the customers have less choice than others brand. Honda Vietnam has accorded to parent company of Honda in Japan. Honda Vietnam has to flow the policies of Head Company therefore; they cannot apply their strategies in Vietnam market that havent allowed by parent company. The first factory car of Honda has established in august 2006 therefore Honda Vietnam has less experience than some competitors such as Toyota, Nissan, etc. Vietnam is one of countries where have high tax with car therefore, the price must be high in Vietnam market. Honda requires a deposit for purchasing cars but Nissan and Toyota dont do that therefore, it is a disadvantages of Honda. (O)pportunities: Brand of Honda has been created in the pass because motorbike of Honda is very famous in Vietnam market therefore they dont need much time to create brand so, when cars of Honda Vietnam has produced and go to market, the customers will have more trust with this brand. In addition, when Toyota (the biggest competitor of Honda) has many problems and must recall many cars. In the future, with good technology, Honda can focus on designing and implementing new product with good quality, reasonable price and low fuel. Improving the quality of product, services and customer relationship as well as building caring center for customers. Honda also has opportunities in developing the fuel efficiency according to the increase of energy price. (T)hreats: Economic crisis will affect directly to business status of Honda. It is very serious because, when crisis will make the bad sale and it also affects to Hondas loyal customers. There are many competitors in Vietnam market such as: Toyota, Nissan, CuuLong, etc. They try to attract and engage customers therefore, Honda cannot control the market. Economic crisis will make the USD charge the value therefore, price of cars of Honda will be charged. It will be difficult for customers. Honda can lose the market. The government has some policies about increasing tax of cars and fuel therefore, it will affect to business status of Honda. IV Five Forces of Honda Vietnam: 1. Socio-cultural Forces: Analysis of societal trends is very important because, almost of stakeholders are members of society and some value can bring from society therefore, it creates opportunities and threats of an organization, for example: when a tobacco company makes more pollution, they will be rejected by society therefore their business status will be down. In addition, firm can decrease the risk if they have good relations with society. In my assignment, I have researched and analyzed to understand how social cultural is important and how it affects to Honda Vietnam. Vietnam has nearly 89 million, we have a large market. In addition, the living of people is increasing especially in cities such as: Hanoi, Hochiminh city, Danang, etc. therefore, demand of cars is increasing however, traffic in Vietnam is not good therefore it is a difficult thing with customers. Vietnam is a developing society; it has many opportunities but also includes threat. Vietnam is socialist country. Political system has made the mechanism only one political party (the Communist Party of Vietnam) leadership. This thing will make some difficult things for Honda Vietnam and others companies have foreign investment. Socio-cultural creates a favorable for business of company. Government of Vietnam treats fairly with all of company. Vietnamese business people always base on helping of government with long-time subsidized, therefore, business which always require the helping from government. It is negative thing. Through some law, policies and regulations government has recognized the demand of the company such as Honda wants to decrease tax. It is very good for this company. Social-cultural of Vietnam also creates a fair competitive therefore, Honda Vietnam will have more than opportunities. Social-cultural forces relate to society and culture problems of Vietnam and how it affects to business status of Honda Vietnam. It also helps Honda Vietnam pay attention to enhance their reputation and long-term plans. 2. Economic forces: Economic forces include some factors which affect to organization action and its performances such as: GDP, inflation rate, employment rate, demographic changing, monetary policies and financial market, etc. In my assignment, I will research on Vietnam economy to find out information which influence to Honda Vietnam. Vietnam economic in 2009 was quite good in the context of global crisis. GDP is increasing with more than 6%. Exports were over 60 Billions USD. Financial and credit systems were quite stable. These things explain that: economy of Vietnam is still quite good therefore Honda Vietnam and many companies will not meet too serious problems. However, inflation of Vietnam was high in 2009 about more than 15%. This thing will influence to Honda Vietnam because this company has to pay high interest rate. In addition, low interest rate will make investment efficiency because, they are less costly to finance. In 2009, Vietnam economy has seen many changing in oil price, monetary and financial. They influence to price of Honda Vietnam product and make the demand of products of customers can be reduced. Besides that, Vietnam and many country depend too much on USD and Vietnam monetary is not good enough therefore, it makes some difficult things to Honda business such as: Honda Vietnam want to sell their product and receive USD because USD price is stable but Vietnamese customers want to buy by VND because, exchange rate of USD per VND is too high. Economic forces have many important missions in strategic management of Honda. It helps Honda can monitor and forecast in domestic and event international economic. 3. Technological Forces: Good technological creates a new and good product, service and event an industry. Technology includes internet, computers, machines, telephones, and technology innovation, etc. Technology refers to the knowledge of applying, producing and delivering product and service in a country. Vietnam technology is very important with Honda Vietnam because, there are many good technologies Vietnamese worker will be advanced and have many knowledge in producing. In recent years, many companies, organizations and corporate have tried to invest more in technology. However, they tried to invest in purchasing and improving hardware rather than build good software. In addition, they only buy technology of developed countries rather than produce, renovate and improve, etc. Although invest in to hardware however, about 36% of companies are asked still use the technology from 1980s. This thing is very bad because, Honda Vietnam will meet some difficult problems when they want to build more factories. In addition, the co-ordinate between foreign companies and domestic companies is bad therefore it make the difficult for transferring new technology. Technology is very important with all of industries and Honda Vietnam is not out of this thing. It helps the company to save time and money and participate in several kinds of several kind of technology can help the company get more profit. 4. Political/Legal Forces: Vietnam government has many policies, laws and legalization to protect and undertake for companies who has business in Vietnam including domestic and foreign companies. the government guarantees that they will not control and help any private company therefore, it creates a fair competitive market in Vietnam. Vietnam government always encourages the investment to many businesses. In addition, Vietnam has a stable policy. It is an important thing to attract the foreign investment; therefore, foreign and domestic investors want to invest more in Vietnam. This thing will be an advantage of Honda Vietnam because they will have more investment to develop their technology, market and business. Vietnam government always applies the same law, policies and legalization with all of companies therefore, it guarantees for Honda can run their business well. Besides that, Vietnam has a large market and it is a good place which Honda can use to join in other markets such as: China, Laos, Malaysia, etc. because our geographic is very good and it is easy to transfer product to many countries in Asia, Southeast Asia, ect. 5. Competitive Forces: Vietnam is an attractive investment therefore, there are many foreign companies invest to produce their product in Vietnam without Honda such as Toyota, Nissan, CuuLong, etc. However, Toyota is the biggest competitors of Honda because; they stay in Vietnam long time ago. They also have good technology and human resource. Their product is good and reasonable price. In addition, Vietnam government guarantees a fair competitive market therefore; they will not help any company. Honda must compete by your-self. However, in the beginning of 2010, Toyota has a big problem and they must recall more than 1 million cars. It is a crisis with Toyota but it is also a lucky thing with Honda because Toyota reputation will be down so, if Honda has good strategies, they will control the Vietnam market. In conclusion, competitive forces are very useful in the modern business. It helps the company as Honda can define their SWOT and find out the good way to compete. In addition, it also helps the company can look at the future and event deal with crisis.

Affirmative Action :: social issues

Affirmative Action Robert K. Miller, author of The Informed Argument, describes affirmative action as, â€Å"an active effort to help members of historically oppressed groups gain admission to American universities and entrance into a diverse range of jobs previously reserved for white males† (145). Miller also states that this was the thinking of the 1970s civil rights movements (144). Things have changed throughout these past 30 years. Society’s way of thinking has changed so much that logical protest has risen against affirmative action by both protesters and supporters of the action alike. Constance Horner, a quest scholar in the Brookings Governmental Scholars program and publisher of â€Å"Reclaiming the Vision,† which can be found in The Informed Argument, is an opponent of supporting affirmative action. Michael Tomasky, author of the excerpt, â€Å"Reaffirming the Vision,† which can be found in The Informed Argument, from his book, Left for Dead: The Life, Death, and Possible Resurrection of Progressive Politics in America, is a supporter of affirmative action. Proving that affirmative action needs to be abolished or improved is something to debate, which Horner and Tomasky do in their written opinions. Constantine Horner explains that affirmative action is causing the opposite result today from its intentions 30 years ago. The loss of jobs for white Americans has opened the floodgates of protest. The mere suggestion of a reformation of the civil rights result has caused a rising distrust in the black American community towards the politics involved. What black Americans don’t see, Horner believes, is the misplacement of under qualified participants in overwhelming situations. The need to fill race quotas has put under qualified applicants in positions at places of employment; therefore, making it harder, if not impossible, for the employee to receive promotions. The placement of a person in a university based solely on the color of their skin has caused â€Å"a college dropout rate for blacks of almost two-thirds† (Horner 150). The resolution Horner gives is to be patient and to evolve and change, just as Americans have been doing, as long as we are moving forward wit h progress. Michael Tomasky gives the hint that maybe he is willing to see affirmative action changed, if even so slightly, but the feeling he gives in his excerpt, â€Å"Reaffirming the Vision,† was one not of a man to let his belief be easily swayed. Tomasky lets the reader know what side he is on by saying, â€Å"from a pro-affirmative action point of view† (153).

The Prisoners Dilemma and the Ability of Firms to Collude :: Business Economics Management Essays

The Prisoners Dilemma and the Ability of Firms to Collude An oligopoly is a market consisting of a few large interdependent firms who are usually always trying to second-guess each other's behaviour. There is a high degree of interdependence between each firm in the industry meaning individual firms must take into account the effects of their actions on their rivals, and the course of action that will follow as a result on behalf of the rival firm which will also have consequences. The market as we will see is also allocatively inefficient as price is above marginal cost. There are barriers to entry and exit in an oligopoly meaning that potential new firms will have huge costs if they try to enter the industry and sometimes firms collude in order to prevent new firms from becoming any threat. For example if a new firm tries to enter the industry the cartel can quite easily reduce its prices in the short run so as to remove the new firm. An example of a heavy barrier to entry for new firms is the cost of National or even International adver tising. As a result of the firms being interdependent, there are various varieties of collusion in oligopolies to try and create some stable space for the firms to operate in. There are three kinds of collusion:  · cartel (contractual)  · covert  · tacit Cartels usually exist where there are agreements between incumbent firms with prices so that they can share what would be monopoly supernormal profits between them, acting as a monopoly. Firms will get together to decide to restrict the output and raise the price, for example OPEC (Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries). In the UK legally binding agreements in cartels are against the restrictive practices legislation and are therefore illegal. Some cartels last longer than others do as some cartels may break contracts. Some examples of cartels include Rowntrees, Cadbury's, the concrete industry with three firms (Rugby, Blue Circle and United). An example of covert collusion would be the cement industry, which was found guilty of rigging contracts and was fined eight million pounds. Tacit collusion is forming implicit contracts as if they are colluding; for example the soap powders industry. In this type of market rather than competing using prices, non-price competition occurs. Examples of non-price competition are special offers, advertising and quality of service, all of which are to establish their own brand loyalty and maintain a high concentration ratio of the market.

Environmental Factors of Human Growth Essay

You often hear the word environment, but do you stop to think what it really means, what it contains, and how it affects you? The actual definition of environment is the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded (Merriam-Webster dictionary). Your environment greatly impacts the way you are as a human being. Each and every one of your life experiences are influenced by your environment. Your environment determines if or how your potential to develop is reached. Family, friends, home, school, etc. re all components of your environment. By reading further, you will witness these factors that affect your personal growth and development being explored and discussed. FAMILY When children are very young, and spend most of their time with their parents and/or other family members family is usually the major human influence in their life. This is also true about most children when they get older and grow into adulthood. Families provide a nurturing environment in which security, protection, satisfaction, and love are given. Physical needs for food and clothing are met. In this environment family members grow to maturity. In a proper family environment a child has positive surroundings, including positive people. when a child is cared for and loved he/she gets ample nutrition, clothing, shelter, rest, interaction/attention, etc. these things help the child grow physically and mentally. the child is surrounded by positivity, therefore the chances of the child maturing into a positive individual are very high. however if a child is raised in an improper family environment, most likely, the opposite will result. e/she will be deprived of the opportunity to fully develop, and has a higher risk of harboring negativity as they age. In the early years families need to meet a baby’s physical, emotional, and social needs because they are helpless on their own. Eventually, babies discover they are independent and can do things on their own. Family members can provide an environment that promotes the growth of independence and set tasks for children to do by themselves. Families can also help children learn how to fit into their surroundings. An environment with well defined limits helps young children learn to control their own behavior. A household with reasonable rules and regulations set by parents/guardians gives children a sense of how to be well behaved. The teen years are years of self discovery for teens as they start to depend less on their families. One way your family can encourage your growth as a teen is to allow opportunities to make personal decisions. Taking more responsibilities helps you develop the capability to make your own choices. An encouraging and supportive family environment can help you develop healthy relationships with others. This is because you get knowledge about the way relationships work from your family. It is very hard to develop relationships with any other person if a strong family relationship isn’t established. Family Structure: The way a family is structured affects the way a child is raised. For example, a child may only live with one parent, a step parent, their grandparents; there are many combinations of a family structure. Changes in family structure can often affect the family’s ability to provide a stimulating environment and can either be negative or positive. There may be more or less money, time/family members to listen, share, encourage, and guide each child. Siblings: Brothers and sisters can be a source of fun, conflict, or competition. They can also learn from each other. Siblings usually continue to interact with each other into adulthood, which can be beneficial to the both of them. Siblings learn to share and cooperate when they interact which, when learned young, instills these habits so that children can share and cooperate with others throughout life. CULTURAL HERITAGE Your family’s guidelines and beliefs are part of your heritage. The holidays, food, and religion your are accustomed to are part of your culture. Families pass on their customs and traditions to their children. Your culture and heritage usually help determine many decisions you make in your future. For example, most of the friends you make and keep will probably be of the same heritage and culture you come from. The places you go, like church, celebrations, festivities, etc. are determined by your cultural background. Multicultural influences can altar your relationships with family members as well as impact your values and expectations for your future family. Odds are, if or when you have children you will transfer those same beliefs and traditions that you are used to to them. SCHOOL A quality school environment provides a setting that encourages students to learn and grow. After school activities can provide chances for students to interact with others in clubs or sports. Class curriculum offers courses that stimulate students’ intellectual growth. Teachers in a quality school environment encourage students by helping them find areas in which they succeed. Teachers also help students find areas in which they need to improve. By doing so, they help students know what decisions to make regarding how to get the most efficient education for them and how they learn best, especially when they get to college. PEERS By interacting with your peers you can make judgements about how you look because you begin to compare your appearance to theirs; how important you are because you compare how much attention they get with how much you get, and how successful you are. The friends you choose now are likely the kind of friends you will make later in life. Your peers can also influence the plans you make for your future. Good friends usually like to stick together so you’ll often make similar choices about things like school, clothing, activities, mutual friends, etc. Sometimes your peers make choices that you feel are not right for you. This gives you a sense of things you’re comfortable with and things you’re uncomfortable with. COMMUNITY There are many different types of communities. Each one has its own influence on the people that live there. The community environment is influenced by resources available. Industries or business provide job opportunities for community members. A low crime rate and pleasant surroundings make residents feel secure and protected. And shopping facilities offer convenience. Also, factors like air quality and cleanliness in general affect the health of community members. Growing up in a community with many resources tends to make a good impression on those that reside there. When that is done, people stay in that community. This prevents constant moving and drifting, so the chance to remain established and comfortable is given. TECHNOLOGY Technology is used in our lives everyday. New technologies influence the items you buy, clothes you wear, and things like that. The biggest way new technology has impacted our society is the fact that it has resulted in a higher standard of living. For example, more goods are cheaper, labor-intense jobs are less popular, and health care has improved. Technology can be a negative thing too. Dependence on technology can cause people to judge their quality of life by material things and money, which can lead to the neglect of the growth of personal relationships. Technology can also cause people to take their intelligence for granted. Technological thinking patterns can cause people to think of quick fixes to real life issues that take thorough thinking. This doesn’t usually work out well. MEDIA Television, radio, movies, videos, newspapers, magazines, etc. are sources of entertainment and information that affect peoples lives. Media can influence people’s thoughts, viewpoints and decisions without them even being completely aware of the affect it has on them. For some members of society, the people on television are models for them to imitate. They also provide an image for developing friendships and relationships. These images are often false and unrealistic, which causes people to have superficial personalities and appearances. The effects of advertising include how yous spend your money, and choices you make about the items you purchase. Ads stimulate sales and goods of services from different companies so that they can make a profit and establish a good company name. Advertisers are well aware of what appeals to certain people because they do extensive research on these things. Being aware of how advertisements influence you in your daily life can help you make wiser choices.

Paper VS Electronic Media Essay

Paper vs. Electronic Media: Work Efficiency and Environmental Impact Hirohito Shibata; Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., 6-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 220-8668, Japan Abstract Table 1. CO2 emissions per unit quantity for each product This presentation quantitatively compares paper and  electronic media from the perspectives of CO2 emissions and work efficiency. Should we reject paper out of hand based on  environmental considerations? Can electronic reading devices replace paper books for leisure and work? I discuss these issues based on various analyses and experiments. Product Introduction Although the paperless office has been repeatedly dismissed  as a myth [1], since 2008, the consumption of office paper in Japan has actually declined. With the advent of electronic reading devices such as Apple’s iPad and the Amazon Kindle, the idea of the paperless office is back in the spotlight. How seriously should we take this second coming of the paperless office? What will happen to paper? What are the relative merits of paper and electronic media? My colleagues and I at Fuji Xerox are currently at work on a research project that seeks to answer these questions. This presentation consists of two parts. The first part  compares paper to electronic media from an environmental  perspective, comparing CO2 emissions generated by paper vs. electronic media (e.g., computer displays, projectors) for reading or reference work. I also compare work efficiency for paper vs. computer displays. The second part compares paper books and  electronic reading devices (e.g., iPad, Kindle) and discusses whether  electronic books might actually take the place of paper books. This paper is a brief report and addresses only the results of these specific analyses and experiments. Standard PC Specifications Desktop High-Performance Desktop PC 17-inch Display 19-inch Display Notebook PC Projector Printer CPU: Intel Core Memory: Less than 4GB CPU: Intel Core Memory: More than 4GB TFT TFT Resolution: More than 1290Ãâ€"800 Electro Photo A3 Printers CO2 emissions per unit quantity 49.60 g/hour 98.42 g/hour 23.36 g/hour 26.34 g/hour 27.59 g/hour 163.58 g/hour 2.58 g/sheet Environmental Impact: Paper vs. Computer Displays CO2 Emissions Table 1 presents CO2 emissions per unit quantity for each  product. This data is based on figures for life cycle CO2 emissions for each product obtained in November 2010 from the website of the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry [2]. Figure 1 compares CO2 emissions associated with each medium when reading an eight-page document. Reading from  paper generates CO2 emissions only at the time the document is printed. In this case, the hours spent reading do not affect CO2 emissions. On the other hand, when we read from displays, CO2 emissions increase in proportion to the time spent reading. For extended reading sessions, CO2 emissions tend to be lower for paper; for reading many short documents, CO2 emissions tend to be lower with computer displays. NIP 27 and Digital Fabrication 2011 Figure 1. CO2 emissions associated with reading Figure 2 compares CO2 emissions for each medium for the case of a ten-page document shared in a meeting. If we deliver this document on paper, CO2 emissions increase in proportion to the number of individuals attending. If we use a projector and a single notebook PC, the number of participants doesn’t affect CO2 emissions. In general, if we are sharing documents for a large meeting, CO2 emissions are lower when we use  projectors than when we distribute on paper. When we share short documents in small groups of two or three, CO2 emissions tend to be lower when we distribute documents on paper. Technical Program and Proceedings 7 of key words in text when using paper and when using computer displays. Reading from paper was 6.8% faster than reading from displays. There was no significant difference between the media in the recognition test of key words. Paper allows faster reading without loss of understanding. Figure 2. CO2 emissions associated with meeting documents Work Efficiency The analyses of the previous section assume equal work efficiency for all media. However, efficiency may actually vary with different media. Lower work efficiency means longer  working hours, which in turn can mean higher CO2 emissions,  since elements of the workplace infrastructure (e.g., ventilation and lighting) need to run longer. I’ll describe three experiments that compare reading performance for each medium. The first experiment examines how different media affect  proofreading when the goal is to detect contextual errors. Figure 3 presents reading speed and percentage of errors detected when using paper vs. computer displays. Reading from paper was 11.9% faster than reading from the displays. There was no significant difference between media in percentage of errors detected. Figure 3. Reading speed and the percentage of errors detected in proofreading to detect contextual errors (N = 20) Figure 4. Reading speed and scores for a recognition test of key words when reading with frequent page turning (N = 18) The third experiment involved cross-reference reading for  multiple documents [4]. Figure 5 compares reading speed and  percentage of errors detected when using paper vs. computer  displays. Reading from the paper was 23.2% faster than reading from displays. Moreover, more errors were detected (a difference of 11.5%) with paper than with computer displays. In both speed and accuracy, paper was superior to displays in cross-reference reading. Figure 5. Reading speed and the percentage of errors detected in crossreference reading for multiple documents (N = 24) The second experiment looked at reading when the task  required frequent switching back and forth between pages [3]. Figure 4 compares reading speed and scores for a recognition test 8  ©2011 Society for Imaging Science and Technology Discussion Comparisons of CO2 emissions from paper and electronic  media indicate that the nature of a task determines which is more eco-friendly. The three experiments here point to the superiority of paper for different reading tasks: proofreading, reading with frequent movement back and forth between pages, and crossreference reading for multiple documents. Clearly, this is hardly an exhaustive listing of all tasks that involve reading. Still, the results suggest paperless work is not always the most eco-friendly work style. Paper should not be rejected out of hand on environmental grounds. Rather, we should select paper or electronic media depending on the specific task. Figure 7 compares task completion times and accuracy  (percentage of correct answers) for each medium in an experiment involving  scanning a manual to find answers. Subjects performed this task 38.6% faster with the paper book than with the iPad and 60.2% faster than with the Kindle. Of the five media, paper books were fastest for scanning text for answers. Work Efficiency: Paper vs. Electronic Reading Devices Reading fiction As a typical example of reading for leisure, I evaluated  electronic reading devices such as iPad and Kindle for reading fiction. Figure 6 shows reading speed with a paper book, an iPad, a Kindle, and a notebook PC. For reading that did not involve  moving from one page to the next, I found no significant  difference in reading speed among the four media. For reading that required page turns, I found that reading from the iPad was as fast as reading from paper books, but that reading from the Kindle was slower than reading from paper books. This suggests that the iPad is just as suited as paper books for tasks like reading fiction. Figure 7. Completion time and percentage of correct answers when scanning text to locate answers to questions (N = 20) Discussion Figure 6. Reading speed: Paper book vs. electronic media (N = 26) For reading fiction, our experiment showed iPads and paper  books offered equal reading speed for reading with and without page turns. This suggests that the current generation of electronic reading devices is perfectly suitable for reading for leisure, at least from the perspective of efficiency. Clearly, other factors such as cost, weight, and design will also determine whether such devices gain widespread acceptance for this purpose. Paper books proved the fastest of all five media in the  experiment involving scanning text to find answers to questions, the reading task ranked as the second most common in the study by Adler et al. Moreover, as discussed above, the current  generation of electronic reading devices remains poorly suited for cross-reference reading, the reading task ranked as the most common. These results suggest that the electronic reading devices currently available do not adequately cover the wide range of reading tasks required for knowledge work. Reading to answer questions Trademarks Adler et al. [5] observed various work-related reading tasks in actual work situations and assigned each instance to one of ten categories. Among the most frequently observed tasks was crossreference reading using multiple documents. Clearly, the current generation of electronic reading devices does not permit crossreference reading. These devices do not allow us to view multiple documents at the same time, and their form factors are too cumbersome to overlap or otherwise move frequently. For this reason, I evaluated these devices for the second-most common task in the study by Adler et al.: scanning text to answer questions. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks or registered  trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Adobe Reader is trademark or registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. iPad is trademark or registered trademark of Apple Inc. Kindle is trademark or registered trademark of Amazon.com Inc. NIP 27 and Digital Fabrication 2011 References [1] Abigail J. Sellen and Richard H. Harper, â€Å"The myth of the paperless office,† The MIT Press, (2001). Technical Program and Proceedings 9 [2] [3] [4] [5] 10 Web site of Japan Environmental Management Association for  Industry, http://www.jemai.or.jp/ecoleaf/index.cfm. [in Japanese] Hirohito Shibata and Kengo Omura, Effects of paper on page turning: Comparison of paper and electronic media in reading documents with endnotes, Proc. HCI International ’11, (2011). Hirohito Shibata and Kengo Omura, Effects of paper in moving and arranging documents: A comparison between paper and electronic media in cross-reference reading for multiple documents, Journal of the Human Interface Society, 12, 3, pg.301, (2010). [in Japanese] A. Adler, A. Gujar, B. Harrison, K. O’Hara, and A. J. Sellen, A diary study of work-related reading: Design implications for digital reading devices, Proc. CHI ’98, pg.241, (1998). Author Biography Hirohito Shibata received his MS in mathematics from Osaka  University (1994) and his PhD in engineering from the University of Tokyo  (2003). He is currently a research scientist at the Research and Technology Group, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Research interests include cognitive science and human-computer interactions. His current research involves investigations of the strengths and weaknesses of presentation media from cognitive perspectives. He is a member of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), The Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI), and Human Interface Society (HIS).  ©2011 Society for Imaging Science and Technology