Nothing Special

"When the life of people is unmoral, and their relations are not based on love, but on egoism, then all technical improvements, the increase of man's power over nature, steam, electricity, the telegraph, every machine, gunpowder, and dynamite, produce the impression of dangerous toys placed in the hands of children."—the diary of Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)

"We know the science, we see the threat, and we know the time for action is now."
— Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), commenting on global warming
Technology is turned out to be a very important part of our every day living. The technology which is according to many authors came from the personal experience and the details of the techniques on how to manipulate them was developed by humans. These skills and turned it into what it is to date over many generations. The progression of the technology is seen in almost every aspect of our daily life. Just as what I said (based on my answer in our first assignment) we are using the technology because of many reasons in fact too many to mention. Among these reasons are the following: it makes our life easier by helping us in accomplishing our daily activities faster and accurately. I have read several articles about the benefits of technology and come up this idea: that technology is the artificial enhancement of human power. It makes us stronger and smarter. Because of the computers and many other gadgets of today (Internet is the best example) we can have the information in just a single click. The information that can be used in many helpful ways is at the hand of many people. Aside from the fact that we are obviously having the advantages of the technology, there are many who believes that technology is of no use and consider technology telling that it only makes things worse. Since the technology is considered to be the biggest contributor to climate change the following information could help us address this global problem.

As long as there will be people, they said that there will still be humans. As I mentioned above, the technology made us stronger and smarter, on the other hand many authors and demented community is finding out that the technology has now the opposite effect. Many inventions has terrified and paralyzed its creators and the benefits of our machines have caused social confusion and economic stagnation. At this present time, the technology as a great challenge. A challenge that needs to be solved before it is too late - climate change. Climate change is considered to be the greatest social, economic and environmental threat of this century. The earth is heating up. Manifestations of this trend are: heat waves and periods of usually warm weather, ocean warming, sea-level rise and coastal flow flooding, glaciers melting, arctic and Antarctic warming. The large changes brought by the climate change will have a big effect on plant and animals. These are because of people who don’t mind how big and serious the damage if they will continue to cut down deforests.
“Climate change is one of the most complexes, multifaceted and serious threats the world faces. The response to this threat is fundamentally linked to pressing concerns of sustainable development and global fairness; of economy, poverty reduction and society; and of the world we want to hand down to our children.” - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Like our own body, the earth’s atmosphere cools and warms but there are certain gases in the atmosphere that can trap and hold the heat in the atmosphere and influence the temperature globally.
Global warming is the most recent political issue of the day, and it now becoming even more pressing over the coming years or more.
The root cause of climate change is the carbon dioxide. Because human discovered organic matters from dead plants and animals that transformed into oil, coal and natural gas, the industry becomes rapidly growing because of the power it brought to the industry. According to studies, combusted carbon dioxide from fossil fuel is said to be a “great” contributor of the warming effect. During the first civilization varies about one degree Celsius and is predicted to rise between two to 4 degrees over the next century. The transformation is continually rising over the past years because of various reasons. The social harm, economic and environmental problem posed a very big challenge to the technology since it is the primary reason for this problem.
“Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values….”
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis: Summary for Policymakers), February 2007;www.ipcc.ch
Climate change has a very big impact globally. Losses from natural disasters are doubling every year and economic losses are estimated to reach about 1.5 billion. 2005 Conference of Scientific Experts (http://www.stabilisation2005.com/) said that the temperature increased may trigger the melting of the Greenland ice cap. Developing countries are likely to be the most affected which may lead to complication in problems relating to the reducing chances of access to drinking water, which will negatively affect the health of those that are living in poverty.
“The impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed – the poorest countries and people will suffer earliest and most. And if and when the damages appear it will be too late to reverse the process. Thus we are forced to look a long way ahead.”
Stern Review Report on the economics of climate change, HM Treasury, UK Government, 2006, www.hmtreasury.gov.uk
“The scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change presents very serious global risks, and it demands an urgent global response”
Stern Review Report on the economics of climate change, HM Treasury, UK Government.
“Human induced climate change – which results from increased ‘greenhouse’ gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere – is the greatest social, economic and environmental threat of this century. It’s a problem mankind has caused mainly through our rapid exploitation of fossil fuels, and it’s a problem we need to solve with our collective intelligence, creativity, and humanity.”

Climate in Earth is changing; this is according to scientific experts. Climate change is commonly known as global warming. There are many causes of global warming but the primary sources of this are vehicles, power plants, industrial processes and deforestation. The gases that are being emitted from the vehicles and other sources are being trap in the atmosphere. As these gases build up, you can think of this as a big blanket covering the Earth causing over-heating the planet and threatening our health, our economy and our environment. Also, burning of fossil fuels to power our homes create global warming pollution. Even us can tell and observe that the world is becoming hotter and hotter. Study shows that the world has now become warmer and warmer. This, according to research will continue if emissions of heat trapping gases continue to increase. The Earth’s ecosystem is at risk because the changing of the climate is changing the intensity and frequency of storms, droughts and fire, raising the level of the oceans and melting of the glaciers. Because of it, it is very frightening because human communities are at risk. There is much evidence that there are dangers posed by global warming.

According to the scientists, the major reduction of carbon dioxide emission is needed to calm down global warming and to soothe the economic, social and environmental system. This is the primary step to lessen the percentage of global warming but new studies found out that no matter how we control the emissions of green house gases, climate globally change inevitably due to the ocean’s slow response to warming. According to studies, even if we can minimize the present level of green house, the temperature and sea levels will continue rising in the coming century or more because of the delay response of the ocean to the atmospheric temperatures.
"The feeling is that if things are getting bad, you hit the stop button. But even if you do, the climate continues to change," says Gerald Meehl, a climatologist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.
As I said and as all we know, the technology has opened us the door for many opportunities but we cannot deny that the result of changing the world are often complicated and unpredictable. They can include unexpected benefits, unexpected often complicated and unpredictable.
Though for me the technology and human will come to its end (and it is very near), we should at least help doing acts that can help in dealing and possibly get rid with the climate change problem. In my own little way, having this capacity as an IT student I can contribute to this great technology challenge by learning how to live back to the basic. What I mean is trying to minimize the use of technology that can cause a drastic change in climate. We should try to reduce using energy and personal emission of greenhouse gases. At home we can try frequently replacing light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs. Aside from the fact that it can last longer, we can also use less energy meaning less pollution. Another is by avoiding leaving the water running. It is always good to turn off the faucet when we are not actually using it. In other countries especially during winter season when most of the time they are using hot water. It is a big help if they should hand in hand cooperate in saving water to help reduce using energy. Soaping in bath, brushing your teeth, washing your hands or by doing some kitchen work like washing the dishes and many others. In our daily routine, we can actually help like taking a bath by doing shorter showers. Regularly cleaning air conditioner and other ventilating equipment every month or two not only maximize the system’s performance but also minimizes energy. Replacing old appliances like old refrigerators with newer energy sufficient models can also help reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. Locally buying produced food and merchandise, you can also help reduce carbon emission because the energy required to transport products can be lessen if more and more people will buy products within their community. Developing this kind of habit is good especially for future possible complications like food crisis and peak oil. By buying paper products that use recycled paper, the yearly percentage of carbon being emitted can also be cut because more virgin trees can be saved. Based on the studies, the third greatest contributor global warming emissions is the paper industry. Through recycling and good waste management, we can help a lot in saving the world. Reducing the garbage will also reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. Recycling is one of the best ways to join many advocacies that promotes recycling examples of these are reusing the plastic bags or paper bags. Let us support recycling by helping avoiding the use materials made from virgin materials. Let us recycle at home, at school and support programs related in recycling. I think we can use the energy that is available and harmless to the environment like using the wind power, solar energy, the energy from the oceans, combining heat and power, super-efficient homes, electric cars and many others. We can use the wind to produce energy but of course we know that it cannot blow constantly, we should to store the energy we generate for the future use. I have quoted from the site of grinningplanet.com (2008) the following information which I think is important global warning solutions: when cleaning around the yard, using reel-style mower is much preferred than power mower to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; using manual machines is good because aside that we are using it exerting less effort we can still have fun and at the same time exercise; planting trees and woody shrubs is another tip because they suck up carbon dioxide and also produce clean air to breath.

It is undeniably obvious how the technology influenced the way we are living now. It has brought us numerous improvements and advantages that is why some would even say that they can not leave without it.

We all know that business is very important part of our society, and this is one of the several reasons why we should be thankful to live in this era witnessing and experiencing how the technology transform the activity that fuels the development.

The development of the Internet and E commerce has made a significant impact to us. In the real world where development is propelled by business activities, the Internet has developed into a world where business activities have become a very common but important event.

The intensification of hasty internet connectivity and millions of individuals that are engaging in businesses online e commerce in different part of the globe at any given moment has opened the doors for many to reach customers everywhere. Here, big and small businesses have equal opportunities because they can appear to be equal.

An e commerce web site offers enormous potential benefits to businesses whatever their size. The e commerce web site is the market place for e merchant and e buyers to meet. It is very important to know the basics and details on how to gain customers and potential sales even if you do not see them face to face. How can you make them feel comfortable as if they are shopping in the real world? Just like in the physical world, careful study and critical decision making is important in order to gain and make sure to guarantee a high yield e commerce site. If you are able to manage and design your e commerce web site, your business will surely rocket in the virtual world. So what is the benefit in having a good and e commerce web site to a business? According to an article that I have read, the following are some it:
1.) Access to a global market – as I mention above, the Internet allows businesses to access the variety of markets to gain potential customers around the world.

2.) Cutting out the middleman – now, businesses can save up to third part because they can sell directly to its end users

3.) A level playing field – here, even a small business can equal the big conglomerate in the virtual world. A newbie in a small business can show itself to be as professional and credible as its larger competitors

4.) 24-hour business – because you are in the virtual world, a business owner can accept payments online, through a web site. You are always open for business to customers even if your office is closed.

5.) Greater customer satisfaction – if manage well, it can be a powerful tool to build loyalty to customer. A web site can let the customer buy, look through, inquire, and follow its order because it is now traceable.

6.) Reduced marketing costs – you can reduced the cost and expenses in marketing through treating customers well with of course your strategy in keeping you ahead over you competitors.

7.) Better customer information – you can observe and get your needed information in building your strategic plan because you can look at closely with the details and buying habits of your customer every time they enter your site.

8.) Streamlined business processes – increasingly companies are integrating their business processes. Orders come in to their website, card details are processed, goods dispatched and stock re-ordered seamlessly, dramatically reducing the cost of each sale.

Upon knowing how an e commerce web site can help your business, it is surely worth spending your time reading this article. If you want to develop and venture online business some they, read the following information. What are the things you need to consider in designing your web site? From the articles that I have read, these are the following information:

According to some expert, no matter how significant or relevant your site is if it is very slow to download chances are your potential client might not stick around. In this very fast evolving world, people do not have a minute to waste. In this world where almost all people are in a hurry, the following can help your web site not slow up:

1.) Limit use of flash
During our Multi-media class, our teacher mention that in our present time, flash is no longer in the trend. Though flash is a typical example of style and definitely has a place in professional web design, it can cause the speed of your site to slow down. Besides, most of your potential visitors don’t have the correct flash player. Also, it can affect your search engine optimization efforts since it is not accessible in the search engines.

2.) Compress your images

Pictures and other images can attract your visitor and can affect the looks of your site. You should realize that it also occupy so much space when you create web design. It is recommended that you should compress your image or picture before putting it in your web. In this way you can reduce the size of your image by up to half of its original size.

3.) Clean up your code

You should be careful in cleaning up your code even if you are using HTML code because even the extra space and unclose tag can affect and can add the size of your file.

4.) Use thumbnails
Small pictures and images can be helpful in the design technique for e commerce web site.

5.) Switch to CSS

The most preferable code that most of the web designers are using now is the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). You can organize your code and can also save download time.

6.) Reduce server requests

Having different element of your web site from different server can reduce the loading time.

7.) Pay attention to page size
According to some professional web designer, the ideal page size is around 30KB. You should observe and keep in mind that big page size can slow response time.

Those are just some basic tips in designing your business web site. Since the aim of most business site is to give the best service to its clients, it is important to create and design the site that can attract and entice your potential customer. Many are looking for more advanced shopping cart features in order to them feel that they are like shopping in the real world. Here are some tips for your cart features that can help bring out the confidence and encourage sales:
1.) Payment Options

Since most of the visitors of online stores are using digital cash, your shopping card software must be able to process digital cash transactions. You should also consider not only those that are using credit card but also offer options such as PayPall®, Google® Checkout, checks, and/or money orders allows more people to feel comfortable checking out on your site.

2.) Site Search & Browse

Your visitors may need for a fast service. So there is a need for online stores to allow their customer to search for whatever product they may be interested with. In this way, they can navigate to categories to see its corresponding price, brand and etc. it is important to include a search feature on your site.

3.) Product Reviews

Testimonials of customers are important and can gain a potential impact on your sale. It is a way to encourage other visitor to try what others have experienced.

4.) Wish List/Registry
It is important in order to allow customers to save item online and return to it later. It is important to give additional features that can help your customer feel that they have a freedom in what they want.

5.) Real-Time Inventory

Keeping a careful monitoring on the available stock is important to make your customer aware that what they can see on the screen is accurate. In short, real time inventory management is important.

6.) Express Checkout
The check out process must be simple as possible making them feel comfortable not like in the physical store that you need to stand in the counter waiting for there turn to be entertained.

7.) Order Tracking

It is important to allow customers to track their order so that they may not be waiting in vain if there is something wrong.

8.) Special Offers

Having some new ways to encourage and entice customers is important just like in the physical store. You can give them special offers to gain their loyalty.

9.) Website Security

You should build an e commerce site with built-in SSL data encryption because security is very important in this kind of business. When you display SSL Certificate, customers feel confident that their personal information is protected.

Additional information aside from the above stated:

1. It is also important that when users misspell the product they want to search, you should be able to recognize it just like Google and other search engines and find some substitute in it. It is very important to inform your customer that they misspelled because the tendency is, they would leave your site and you will lose potential sale.

2. Providing user-friendly forms is recommended which encourage customers to fill in the forms. If you present form with large quantity of boxes, the tendency is that they will leave your site without completing the form.

3. A concise email follow up is important to make your customer aware of the confirmation. Make sure that it is in the form that your customer will not be annoyed by minimizing page that is full of advertisement. The recommended length is only one page containing only the information that your customer require.

4. Make sure that your shopping cart is designed to handle crashes so that when the costumer return to the shopping cart after he crashes happen, he or she can find it still intact.

5. The speed of the internet connection today is very fast changing. Quick download time is important; though broadband now is rapidly increasing there are still countries that were not reached by it. So better to designed it using HTML to reduce the download times.

6. Also, make sure that the image reflects the brand of your product placement. Correct branding is important and clean inviting look of your site clearly defined the reputation of it.

It is important to choose advanced cart features that help you sell and succeed online business. According to an article, e commerce shopping carts are just like engines that keep online stores running smoothly. As a merchant, you have to make sure that you will provide the needed information for your customer. It must make sure that the information is complete, clear and correct. It should be keep in mind that unlike the physical store that have real people to solve your customers problem just like maintaining the displays and many others. The web sites needs to provide quality information to satisfy customer needs. Remember that virtual stores don’t have real people to assist there needs and queries. It is critical to make certain that the information you provide and displayed is clear, concise and provide accurate up to date information. Anything lacking and less will make your sales decline. Providing them their needed and updated information (though it is very time consuming for the company), this will demonstrate that your have a great commitment to customer service. Another thing that you have to consider is the delivery times. There are those companies that overstate and exaggerate their delivery times. Though almost every body is in a hurry and customer may want it the soonest possible, you have to consider that we are in different geographic and demographic areas. You must address the issues regarding delivery times that suit you and your customer. You must inform her or him in advance how much cost that will be added to the original price though delivery time now is not a big issue anymore.

Having the needed technology doesn’t give you an assurance that you will succeed in your business. The above mentioned are just some of many suggestion to be taken in to consideration on how you manage virtual business, the important is, you are ready to handle and deal with uncertainties.

sources:
http://www.networksolutions.com/e-commerce/guide/ecommerce-shopping-cart.jsp
http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/customer_relations/article.php/3390731
http://www.stevearun.com/124/ar-001ar-ogwu-promoting-customer-sales-and-loyalty-through-web-design/
http://knol.google.com/k/steve-winnington/creating-effective-ecommerce-sites/mf86h2ycq1jd/2#
http://www.networksolutions.com/custom-website-packages/guide/web-site-design.jsp

“In the past five years, 1 in 4 Americans was a victim of identity theft making it America's fastest growing crime. Identity theft statistics indicate that this crime costs the government, businesses, and citizens of America billions of dollars each year.” – whitcanyon.com

“Arizona had the dubious distinction of being the very worst place in America for identity theft. The rampant fraud affected almost 300,000 residents last year. The financial damages totaled $147 million. Why did this happen? An investigation has been opened to answer that question. Called 'Identity Theft 911', this study wants to know why 25% of Arizona residents have fallen prey to identity theft in the past six years. Some possible reasons include lack of government action, the increasing market for methamphetamines, and illegal or fraudulent employment.” – (Weiss, 2008)

According to the Javelin Strategy and Research’s new report, identity fraud rates increased for the first time in the five years (2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report: Identity Fraud on the Rise but Consumer Costs Plummet as Protectionist increase, 2009)

These are few of the many reasons why many people still prefer shopping traditionally though the virtual world offer a much convenient way. Though the Internet has opened and skyrocketed the opportunities for business entrepreneur, it is not a guarantee that you will be successful in whatever you may want to venture online.

The information above is the concerns of online shoppers when making online purchases. According to an article citing TNS Research (2006), 87% of online shoppers are concerned about credit card fraud; 85% of online shoppers are concerned about identity theft; 83% of online shoppers are concerned about sharing personal information; and 77% of online shoppers are concerned about spyware.

Based on these facts, we can conclude that building trust in e commerce is essential. Trust is the key element of commerce in both traditional and innovative model. The latter needs much work and effort than its traditional counterpart because it solely relies on trust being created and maintained with the help of the digital devices and services.

These are the following information and ways I have research to convey trust on the Internet:

• Since many people are concern of entering information and confidential data across the Internet, digital certificate is the effect for ensuring e commerce security. Having a digital certificate in your web site makes online shoppers feel secure because it is a sign that you, the certificate owner is legitimate and is able to protect the sensitive data of your customers. You can only have a digital certificate after the certificate authority have thoroughly checked your company. Customers who see your post logo will trust you because they will know that your web site undergoes a thorough test and inspection process and that their personal data submitted will be encrypted.

• Many people are hesitant in doing shopping online because they do not know what the online merchant will do with their personal data because they may think that their information will be sold to email spammers and telemarketers. With this, e commerce companies can show that they take privacy seriously by displaying a seal that tells customers that the company practices a good privacy policy.

• An e commerce company must not only take care of security issues and assure other privacy issues but also prove that they deliver promises. A company must make sure that they are reliable by making sure that they provide an excellent service level.

• You should also provide a way to contact your business to know their concerns also.

• Putting testimonials from your customers is an effective way to gain your visitor’s trust. In this way, they will know what kind of product and service you have.

• You also need to let your visitors know how will you use their personal information and how are you going store it.

• A very popular and for good reasoning is the money back guarantee. It is a way to show that you do not have anything to hide and you are confident in your product or service.

• Providing a sample or trial of your product or service is also a wonderful way to gain visitor’s trust.

• It is also advantage if you have endorsements from another well known and respected organization(s) or person(s) that will help you prove your claims.

• According to John S. Rhodes article, the three primary factors about trust from a survey are: good content, simple design, and few grammatical errors.

• Well-written content is crucial in gaining trust. It is said that a trusted web site is driven by content other than design driven. Also the decorative graphics, animations and other “ornamentals” don’t seem to facilitate the development of trust.

• Grammatical errors have a tendency to cause a user to drive back and discourage them to bookmark. Well organizing and updating your web site frequently can improve trust to users especially if you provide them with the well-run materials. Many users easily trust those web sites that are easy to access and easy to search. Freshness of your content is also a great factor because fresh material is easier to trust than old materials.

• According to survey, people are inclined to trust web sites that are more usable.

• It is important that your web site is well designed and provide a user friendly environment that makes sure your visitors comfortable in the first time they visit your site. First impression is very important. You cannot convince your visitors face to face so it is important to have a good interface.

• In should be taken seriously that small things can quickly turn users off making their trust drop such as spelling errors.

• Even a minor grammatical error can deter a sale because a decrease in usability leads to decrease in trust. The risk that people may go elsewhere is high when there is a usability error.

• Make sure that your web content is audience appropriate and user driven. It is important to create the content first before the design. To ensure that there is no error, repeatedly test the content and design with users.

• Having a simple web site is important. It is advisable to make sure that your web site is as simple as possible using minimum colors and graphics. Organize the content effectively and be consistent from page to page.

• Aside from grammatical errors, beware of factual errors. Do not say something that is not true and don’t fabricate information.

• Give credit where credit is due. Provide links to sources and references.

• Updating frequently is important. Informing users of the last update is usually done at the bottom of the page in the footer area.

• Minimize the use of graphics. When using graphics be sure that they are appealing. Graphics should generally provide extremely useful information or they should present an idea not easily expressed with words.

• Be sure that there are no dead links on your site.

• Be sure that user email (especially user feedback) is responded to as fast as possible. An increase in response time is inversely proportional to trust. Also, be sure to utilize the power of your .sig file.

If you are serious about selling on the world wide web and being successful, your number one priority must be gaining your visitor’s trust. Without trust you won’t sale much and that’s really being optimistic. How do visitors know that they can trust a web site enough to buy? In this article I’ll show how to gain the trust of your visitors.

The first impression can be everything. Studies have shown that visitors can determine almost immediately whether they can trust you or not. Making it essential that you have good, clean and professional looking web design. The web design should be easy to the eye and easy to navigate. It should also load fast and require nothing to download in order for it to be viewed, such as flash and Java.

Provide your visitors a way for them to contact your business. Many visitors will look for this information, some don’t even realize they do. If you don’t provide it you are sure to lose sales. They need to know this information, just in case they need help or want to return the product or want to make a comment. You need to provide a mailing address, phone number and email address/contact form.

Secure Sockets Layer certificate is also important part of gaining your visitor’s trust. Secure Socket Layer is a protocol that sends encrypted data over the Internet. Secure Sockets Layer certificate shows that all information being transmitted on your web site will be passed on securely and is protected. Some people will not even think about buying from a web site that don’t at least offer this as an option.

Testimonials can be a wonderful way to gain your visitor’s trust in your product or service. Testimonials show that people that have bought from you are pleased with your product or service. Also, never make up testimonials, this can hurt you more then it helps because it’s not too hard for you to be caught in the act. This may lead people to believe that all your testimonials are fake and that you can’t be trusted.

Internet surfers are ever more looking at the privacy statement on web sites because of the fear of personal information getting into the wrong hands. You need to let your visitors know exactly how you will be using their information you collect and how you’ll be storing it. Visitors need to know if their information will be sold or shared with any third party and if you sale or shared the information with any third party, what information will you give out?

Also what security measures will you take to protect the information you have collected and how can they change or delete any of their information? It’s also a good idea to get your privacy statement certificate by an organization that’s well known and trusted. Most of these organizations make sure your privacy statement is fair to the internet surfers.

Money back guarantees are becoming very popular and for good reason, they show that you are confident in your product or service and that you have nothing to hide. It removes all risk to your customers and makes them much more likely to buy from you. Further more, remember to honor all refund requests in a timely manner without fighting with them. Just suck it up and give them the refund.

Provide a sample or trial of your product or service. This will allow your potential customers to test out the product or service before making any commitment. Some potential customers may have never got the product or service from you before because of the fear that it wasn’t what they really wanted and needed. Just like offering the money back guarantees, this too will show that you are confident in your product or service and that you have nothing to hide.

Today, according to study getting endorsements from another well known and respected organization(s) or person(s) will help prove your claims. The integrity and expertise of the person or organization endorsing your service or product also plays a role. Someone that’s consider an expert about one of your service’s or product’s subject would be better then someone that don’t know much or anything about it.

Though business owners are giving their best in protecting their customers, it should always be remembered that hackers and other people having bad intentions are also doing their best in using the power of technology in achieving what they want. Therefore, it is also important that every individual must do their part in protecting their identity. The following are just some suggestions to protect your self against identity thieves: every individual must be aware the business they are dealing with; ensure you are shopping at a secure Web site; beware of phishing e-mails that appear to be from trusted businesses; review privacy and security policies of the companies you do business with; do not use personal information for passwords; be proactive in protecting your security by keeping antivirus and firewall software updated; be aware that international security and privacy standards may be different; and check your credit report regularly.

In many cases, identity theft victims haven't done anything wrong, except place their trust in people who abuse or neglect it. Do your part to protect your identity by enrolling in a credit monitoring service. Use online banking to keep real-time tabs on purchases made with your accounts. If you notice anything odd, contact your credit card company immediately. Many of them have measures in place to keep identity theft damage to a minimum.

As the technology is evolving, it should always be remembered that thieves are also coping with this changes just like what is said by Judy Lin, the executive vice president and general manager of VeriSign, "With the increase in both the frequency and sophistication of malicious online activities such as phishing and identity theft, a fresh approach is needed to protect consumers as they conduct business online.”

Sources:
[1] http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/the-worst-identity-theft-scams-of-the-year-435665.html
[2] http://www.whitecanyon.com/identity-theft-statistics.php
[3] http://www.spamlaws.com/credit-fraud-stats.html *
[4] http://www.samport.com/news/press-release-online-fraud-hits-christmas-shopping *
[5] http://www.en8848.com.cn/Article/Ecommerce/Ecommerce/11747.html

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The Internet has blow up into the world of opportunities and chances for the business entrepreneur. The Internet has brought us quicker communication with and allows us to access into specific market places we want. Through the use of email, putting resources of business at our reach (because today, it is now in our finger tips) and giving us a broad basis of knowledge and education, the Internet has created a very productive atmosphere for ecommerce and small business. The development of high speed internet connectivity and millions of individuals as well as businesses online engaging in online commerce all over the world at any given moment has opened the doors to reach customers everywhere. At the present, we can now see customers purchasing stock online, purchasing shoes online, purchasing prescription drugs online and many more. The Internet today is truly the hottest trend in doing business entrepreneur. The changing of strategy of modern business is progressively becoming more and more reliant upon online transactions. In the present day, doing business to business ecommerce (also called b2b ecommerce) has turn out to be a key feature for the marketing sales or strategy in many companies doing online commerce planning. It is widely believed to promise a radical change in the way that firms trade with one another. Business to business ecommerce applications are being promoted as tools that will enable producer firms in developing countries to reduce their cost substantially, thereby easing their access to global market. Gaining knowledge about this great potential market place is very significant for the ecommerce business as a technique to increase Internet sales.

Business to business ecommerce involves two or more merchants doing business with one another on the Internet. These merchants need to be online as businesses to be considered as doing business to business ecommerce. In our time, these merchants are doing and using the World Wide Web in they’re business to spread out and increase. The Internet provides an open global network and access to this network is relatively cheap. Internet based business to business e commerce help producers obtain better information on global markets and give them direct access to new customers.

There are many marketing benefits and advantages when doing business to business ecommerce. In doing a business, these are the following common activities: Finding customers through sales and marketing; Obtain quotations, negotiate price, specifications and contracts; R&D. Product (or service) development; Sell to retail and wholesale customers and through distributors; Inventory control including disposal of distressed inventory and demand intelligence; Qualifying customers to prevent rogue transactions; Procurement of raw materials, components and supplies; Optimizing business through negotiations with suppliers, distributors and customers; Manage IT Resources; Invoicing; Strategic planning; Project management; Managing finance, cash, debt and investments; Manage Human Resources (Staff); Manage Property; Manufacturing or performing services; and Warehousing.

Today that transactions are done online, so I have research some of the negotiations online to understand and appreciate how the Internet technologies enable the organization to obtain competitive advantages through this kind of ecommerce. Here are the following:

• Initiated through requests or offers; Buyers want something, sellers have something to offer
• Sellers respond to buyers by offering products or services at a suggested price
• Buyers respond to sellers by offering a price for specific products or services
• Buying and selling can be via open or secret processes and may be for a fixed time
• Specifications can be negotiated instead of or as well as price

There are also many features of business to business marketplace portals and these are the following: Registration of suppliers (or buyers in a demand marketplace); Suppliers offer products or services; Suppliers provide additional details to allow buyers to select (qualify) potential suppliers; Portal may provide additional checks to enable further qualification of its suppliers: credit, references, research; Portal offers mechanism for searching suppliers; May include public or secret forms of offer (bids, prices, estimates); Marketplace may hold deposits or payment on behalf of the buyer (escrow) until the seller releases goods or meets a delivery milestone; May support contractual elements of transactions providing audit trail for purchase orders and invoicing; May aggregate demand from multiple buyers; Relationships may be short term or the basis for on-going trade; Portals may charge fees to buyers or suppliers or a percentage of contracts negotiated; and Marketplaces may be created independently or within existing industry relationships.

Aside from the list that I have mention above, there are also ways in generating new ways in communication channels for on going relationships and these are the following: ordering; invoicing; shared planning, product development and problem solving; reducing errors in communication; enabling just in time, JIT, ordering or shipping and moving warehousing costs to your suppliers; enabling distributors and customers to your marketing for you; and making it harder for your competitors to work with your suppliers.

The following are some of it:

1. It reduces costs – ordering and searching for raw materials online significantly reduces the costs of purchasing them. Many businesses prefer the “virtual” world that offers online sales of parts and materials. According to them, a company using the Internet sellers that supply this parts or supplies function can reduce the cost to one third.

2. It improves the marketing and sale of parts, materials, or products – doing ‘window shopping’ for parts, materials or resale products becomes tremendously easy so many buyers for companies and online merchants are on the Internet. You can get and compare the information about prices, features, delivery procedures and other useful information easily so you can guarantee that you have and get the best on what you need at the lowest possible price by means of internet commerce.
3. High efficiency – today, orders costing millions or even billions can be performed at the click of a button by the use of an Internet commerce software program in a matter of seconds which is formerly done over months.

4. No inventory worries – since the transactions are given online and goes directly to an e commerce server, all the needed information of having some verification of the needed material or product and its transportation is clearly traceable. Today, easy delivery proof is very easy because of the Internet e commerce functionality.

5. Supplying business to business e commerce is a great way to help businesses save money, effort and time. It is very ideal for those companies that are very demanding in deadlines.

6. Maximize company profit and reduce turnover time greatly.

7. Outsourcing the unprofitable parts of your business.

8. Speeding up your product development activities – reducing time to market

9. Improved business and market intelligence. Understanding your market better than your competitors.

10. Cloning your business in further market – according to many studies and researches, there are many successful establishments and companies doing traditional businesses experiencing difficulties in translating their reputation to the virtual podium the web offers.

11. Improving the speed of communication – as mention above, the Internet has provided a cheaper and faster way of communication in both the merchants and the potential customers.

12. Facilitating communication between your customers and suppliers – with the aid of the Internet, both parties (may it be situated in different part of the globe) can communicate and exchange though and concerns in real time.

13. Reducing wastage through additional sales channels – the waste can be reduce because in virtual world, you can have unlimited customers viewing your web site which possibly means more sales.

14. Improved ability to experiment and learn – you can test and study every customer visiting your web site. Example placing security logo in different areas of the page was discovered to affect the sales. Many examiners believed that testing is the key to success. They said that without it, you can’t be certain what impact the alterations you make have on conversion.

15. Higher customer retention rates.

16. Lower customer acquisition costs.

17. Reduced cost can be passed on in favorable pricing.

According to different studies and research conducted about this new e commerce application, they found out that e commerce opens new and cheaper access to global markets for producer firms. It strengthens the existing relationships between the manufacturers and global bargain hunters. It also reinforces existing power relations.

Though there are many benefits in doing businesses in the virtual world, we cannot deny the fact that it has also negative effects like in one study conducted which resulted that the developing country producers aren’t benefiting the business to business e commerce. According to them “..the use of the Web was being limited by inadequate and costly domestic telecommunication infrastructures and slow connection speeds. The use of Web-based applications might increase as ICT costs decline, but the costs of dealing with new suppliers and customers will continue to be high. Most of the B2B e-commerce activities of developing country exporters are not dependent on very sophisticated ICT requirements. However, cost-effective and reliable access to telecommunication and Internet services is required.”

However, though there are some drawbacks and inconvenience, the overall outcome of the online business to business e commerce is truly a success in the field of technology and business.

sources:
http://www.jonathanbriggs.com/other/b2b-e-commerce-lecture,390,AR.html
http://www.onlinecommercepro.com/business_to_business_ecommerce.shtml
http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/MS.2008.136
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