CHAPTER 10 CASE STUDY

Vignette: Problems with Suppliers

1. How can an organization ensure that all the members of its supply chain will behave ethically?

    Business today is a complicated affair. Markets are extremely competitive, lowering costs and encouraging consumer choice. At the same time,consumers are becoming more informed and, as result, have higher expectations of the behavior of the companies they choose to buy things from. Low prices are attractive, but, for many, they are not enough; consumers expect quality, breadth of range and increasingly are also making their purchasing decisions on the basis of a company’s ethical and environmental track record. The question now for businesses in every industry and of all shapes and sizes is whether it is viable to marry all these demands together into a cohesive and profitable business strategy.The Kingfisher Group, for example, is finding ways to address this issue. As a holding company for the home improvement retailers B&Q in the UK broadcasting in France, Kingfisher’s stance on ethic scan be seen clearly through every one of its products.Whether a door handle or an entire set of garden furniture, each item has been through an often long and complicated supply chain that has had an influence on the environment and human lives at many points along the way. The aim, of course, is tonsure that, where these points of contact are made,the influence is positive rather than negative, but, with so many steps involved in production, this can be hard to evaluate. Kingfisher works to ascertain that the following conditions are met:

• treatment of the people involved in the

production process – that they work in decent

conditions for a living wage, that they are not

exploited and are treated fairly; 

• the environmental consequences of production –

that only sustainable resources are used and that

no excessive pollution is created; and 

• the effects on the local communities – that the

host area is treated with respect and that businesses

obey the local laws and customs and do not

become involved in corrupt practices.

Link: http://www.touchbriefings.com/pdf/199/ifpm032_p_knight.pdf

2. What responsibility does an organization have to ensure that its suppliers and business partners behave ethically?

      Organization must check all the suppliers and business partners every month or even every week. They must be wise enough to know ensure that their partners and suppliers behave with a good ethics for the business sake. They must be good in handling them.

Manufacturers Compete on Green Computing

1. How have green computing efforts lowered the total cost of computer ownership?

    IT managers are increasingly seeking out suppliers of high performance, cost-effective and energy-efficient Green IT products. Their primary driver is economic: to reduce skyrocketing data center operational costs, a large proportion of which are energy related costs. As energy costs continue to escalate, users will need to spend significantly more to power and cool their server hardware than to purchase it.
"Earth-friendly" Product Advantages
Supermicro leverages advanced technology and system design expertise to reduce the power consumption of our server, blade, workstation and storage systems. Over many years of experience, we have become an industry leader in power saving technology. In 2006, for example, our 1U Twin™ servers were introduced featuring two DP nodes in a 1U form factor with 89% power efficiency. In 2007 our SuperBlade® systems built on this technology achievement to develop 93% power efficiency. In 2008 Supermicro's DatacenterBlade™ and OfficeBlade™ won Blade System Insight's "Best Green Data Center Solution" award for 93%+ power supply efficiency and our TwinBlade™ won Blade Systems Insight's prestigious "Best Blade-Based Solution" award in 2010 for the highest-performance/density Blade solution with 94%+ power supply efficiency.
Leading the way to even greater results, our engineers continue to improve green technology as a primary product design objective. In 2011, Supermicro introduced a major breakthrough in power supply technology with the industry's first SuperCompact (L220mm x W54.5mm x H40mm ) 1U 400W supply module conforming to Energy Star 2.0 specifications.
Benefits
As a result of these efforts, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of Supermicro's servers and computer systems has decreased significantly over time. Each of our 93%+ efficient systems, comparing to others equipped with traditional 70% to 80% efficient power supplies, can save up to $200 to $500 per year depending on configuration and usage. Alternatively, this savings can provide a reduction of more than half a metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions from the generation of electric power from fossil fuels.
As an example, each node of Supermicro's SuperBlade® can save up to 100 watts over a traditional discrete 1U rack-mount server. These savings add up quickly when a SuperBlade chassis is fully populated with 10 servers. By eliminating the overhead in 1U discrete servers and using high-efficiency (up to 93%) power supplies, the SuperBlade® can save customers between $700 and $1,000 per year in power - even more when lower cooling costs are included. And the carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by more than 5.5 metric tons - the equivalent to planting 1.7 acres of trees.
Link: http://www.supermicro.com/about/greencomputing/

2. Which approach can yield greater benefits—building greener computers or implementing programs that change users’ behavior so that they operate their computers in a more responsible manner? Explain your response.

       I will agree to implement programs that change users behavior so that they operate their computers in a more responsible manner. It is the best approach that can yield greater benefits, it is because they can be a responsible user. Implementing programs like this can help them mold to a new person be a good user.

3. Do research at the EPEAT Web site and determine which computer manufacturer currently has the best green computing ratings.
     As what i have research in the internet, the computer manufacturer currently has the best green computing ratings are Apple.

CHAPTER 9 CASE STUDY

Vignette: Twitter Emerges as News Source for Iran Protesters

1. Many people question the value of Twitter’s goal of helping people stay connected in real time. Do the events in Iran illustrate the potential value to society of social networking tools such as Twitter? Are there other ways that Twitter and other social networks could be used by people and organizations to add real value?

      Now a days people used social networking in different goals about themselves and about the other people. Some used it to destroy and to create chaos to them. Some used it to give and add real value to it.

2. How trustworthy is the information one gleans from social networks such as Twitter?

    Maybe or maybe not. because some social networking not only the twitter give us information, but you don't know how true is.

Social Networking Disaster for Domino’s

1. Some observers believe that if an organization does not respond to an attack on its brand within the first 24 hours, then the damage has been done—lack of management response is judged as an admission of guilt. Others feel that some time is required to gather facts and figure out what happened before responding. With the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, how might Domino’s have reacted more effectively?

     They must be disappointed of the result. It is the employee who do it and it is their responsibility to disciple all their employee. They must avoid this situation and they must improve their services.

2. Do you find it unusual that Domino’s response was primarily through the online media rather than the usual printed press releases? Does this seem an effective and appropriate way to respond under these circumstances? Why or why not? Does Domino’s use of the online media set a precedent for others to follow in the future?

    It is effective because it seems that people were fun of using technology than reading newspaper.

3. Identify three lessons that other companies could learn from Domino’s experience.
    Never let your employee do their work without your presence.
    Make sure that you employ rules.
    Never trusted your employee.

CHAPTER 8 CASE STUDY

Western Cape Striving to Eliminate the Digital Divide

1. How important is access to ICT in children’s education?

    Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is important in primary education because it enables kids to search for the information they need and to organize what they have found. As children progress through the school system, they become increasingly responsible for their own learning. Many believe that ICT needs to be better integrated into curriculum so all schools produce computer literate, independent learners.
http://www.ehow.com/about_6612110_importance-ict-primary-education.html#ixzz1uSjrMKCR

2. What are the barriers that stand in the way of universal access to ICT for everyone who

wants it?

     The computers and other equipments are more expensive.

Technological Advances Create Digital Divide in Health Care

1. Can you provide examples that either refute or confirm the idea that a gap exists between the kinds of healthcare services available to the wealthy and the poor in the United States?

      Inequality in economic resources is a natural but not altogether attractive feature of a free society. As health care becomes an ever larger share of the economy, we will have no choice but to struggle with the questions of how far we should allow such inequality to extend and what restrictions on our liberty we should endure in the name of fairness."At its root, the lack of health care for all in America is fundamentally a moral issue. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have some form of universal health care (defined as a basic guarantee of health care to all of its citizens). While other countries have declared health care to be a basic right, the United States treats health care as a privilege, only available to those who can afford it... Americans purport to believe in equal opportunity. Yet, in the current situation, those who do not have health care are at risk for financial ruin and poorer health, both of which disadvantage them in society and thereby do not give them equal opportunity.
http://www.weegy.com/?ConversationId=91CA1D2F

2. Should healthcare organizations make major investments in telemedicine to provide

improved services that only the wealthy can afford?

     They create this for everybody but as what being observed only those who has money used this technology because they are the one who can afford to it, not only for the wealthy or rich people can afford the telemedicine, also for the poor people can benefits so that it’s not fair to others.

3. What are the drawbacks of telemedicine? What situations might not lend themselves to

telemedicine solutions? 

     Telemedicine is a vast subject, but as yet there are limited data on the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of most telemedicine applications. As a result, objective information about the benefits and drawbacks of telemedicine is limited. This review is therefore based mainly on preliminary results, opinions and predictions. Many potential benefits of telemedicine can be envisaged, including: improved access to information; provision of care not previously deliverable; improved access to services and increasing care delivery; improved professional education; quality control of screening programmes; and reduced health-care costs.

CHAPTER 7 CASE STUDY

Vignette: Boeing Dreamliner Faces a Few Bumps in the Road

1. Is this example of software problems holding up the introduction of a major new product and impacting a firm’s customers and suppliers unusual, or is it a common occurrence?

    For me it is a software problem. They create new software and they introduced it to the public without further study of a possible problem of this software. Time come to them that even their business was affected by this problem. The traveller which is their customer was hassled by the late flight or cancelled flights.

2. What can organizations do to reduce the negative consequences of software development problems in the production of their products and the operation of their business processes and facilities?

     The best thing that they must do is to improved the software and use other facilities that can improved it. Before they create a new product they must find solution to the existing problem. In order to reduce negative consequence of the software development, insure that the quality is high and good performance.

Patriot Missile Failure

1. With the benefit of hindsight, what steps could have been taken during development of the Patriot software to avoid the problems that led to the loss of life? Do you think these steps would have improved the Patriot’s effectiveness enough to make it obvious that the missile was a strong deterrent against the Scud? Why or why not?
     To prevent some problems the first steps could have is to double check, during development of the Patriot software is checked carefully to avoid in danger and serious problems. There are many country that uses this missile so there must be a good study.

2. What ethical decisions do you think the U.S. military made in choosing to deploy the Patriot missile to Israel and Saudi Arabia and in reporting the effectiveness of the Patriot system?

     The U.S. military made in choosing to deploy the Patriot Missile to Israel and Saudi Arabia because in the desert they have a field area and far in accident.  The system should be well function for them to used it without any hassle and defect. They must also insure the system the has a good calculation of time.

3. What key lessons from this example of safety-critical software development could be applied to the development of business information system software?
      The best key lesson here is to how will you developed a high good quality software's in related into the business establishment's.  

CHAPTER 6 CASE STUDY

Vignette: RIAA Fights Music Piracy

1. Is the RIAA’s strong stand on copyright infringement helping or hurting the music recording

industry?

    I think it helps the music recording industry, so to prevent it’s better to buy an original copies not copyrighted. In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect the intellectual property and First Amendment rights of artists and music labels, conduct consumer, industry and technical research and monitor and review state and federal laws, regulations and policies. They have the right to stand strong on this law because they felt being insulted. They record that song nor create that movie for them to gain profit but what they did is that they just downloaded it freely on net.

                                      

2. Could an ISP’s implementation and enforcement of the RIAA’s multitier strategy have a

negative impact on the ISP?

    The ISP cannot download any movie or music freely. If they want it then they must pay for this. The RIAA says the music industry has fully embraced the Internet as a major channel for distribution to consumers,the group has called on the Federal Communications Commission to endorse efforts to curb illegal downloads of copyrighted works.

Lotus vs. Borland

1. Go to your school’s computer lab or a PC software store and experiment with current

versions of any two of the Quattro, Excel, or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet programs. Write a brief

paragraph summarizing the similarities and differences in the “look and feel” of these two

programs.

    Is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (now part of IBM). It was the IBM PC's first "killer application"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment. While the Microsoft Excel is a commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.                        
   
                     

2. The courts took several years to reverse their initial decision and rule in favor of Borland.

What impact did this delay have on the software industry? How might things have been

different if Borland had received an initial favorable ruling?

     Its because the Lotus menu command hierarchy is copyright-able subject matter,
we further hold that Borland did not infringe Lotus's copyright by copying it. We need not consider any of Borland's affirmative defenses.  It has a favor decision for Borland. Because they allow Borland without thinking of its consequences and infringement. The industry might be mad and confused for this decision.

3. Assume that you are the manager of Borland’s software development. With the benefit of

hindsight, what different decisions would you have made about Quattro?
     The best thing that I will do is to do the right things and if that right things will be block then I might resign for I know that it is all illegal and someday I might go to prison for this act if I will consider it.

CHAPTER 5 CASE STUDY

Vignette: Sexting

1. Does sexting represent a form of expression that is protected by the First Amendment?

    I guess so, it is because we all know that we covered by the law of freedom of expressions.

2. What can be done to protect people from the dangers of sexting while still safeguarding our

First Amendment rights?

    For the children, the parents should have always to guide their children in a correct way. For people will able to be protected from the danger of sexting is to avoid from texting to those people that are in this action. As we see the cause of this problem is the individual who takes photos of her self nude or even text other people with messages that is not appropriate to them.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

1. Visit the EFF Web site at www.eff.org and develop a list of its current “hot” issues. Research

one EFF issue that interests you, and write a brief paper summarizing EFF’s position.

Discuss whether you support this position and why.

  Bloggers can be journalists (and journalists can be bloggers). We're battling for legal and institutional recognition that if you engage in journalism you're a journalist with all of the attendant rights privileges and protections.
  Bloggers are entitled to free speech. We're working to shield you from frivolous or abusive threats and lawsuits. Internet bullies shouldn't use copyright libel or other claims to chill your legitimate speech.
 Bloggers have the right to political speech. We're working with a number of other public-interest organizations to ensure that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) doesn't gag bloggers' election-related speech. We argue that the FEC should adopt a presumption against the regulation of election-related speech by individuals on the Internet and interpret the existing media exemption to apply to online media outlets that provide news reporting and commentary regarding an election  including blogs.
 Bloggers have the right to stay anonymous. We're continuing our battle to protect and preserve your constitutional right to anonymous speech online including providing a guide to help you with strategies for keeping your identity private when you blog.
 Bloggers have freedom from liability for hosting speech the same way other web hosts do. We're working to strengthen Section 230 liability protections under the Communications Decency Act (CDA) while spreading the word that bloggers are entitled to them.
Source: https://www.eff.org/about

Iran Continues March Towards “Halal Internet”
This past weekend, Iran’s minister of telecommunications announced that domestic institutions including banks, telecom companies, insurance firms, and universities are now prohibited from dealing with emails that do not come from an “.ir” domain name. This means that customers who use foreign email clients such as Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail will have to switch to domestic Iranian accounts, which are subject to Iranian legal jurisdiction.
The foreign email ban is the latest development in what is widely thought to be a transition towards a “Halal” Iranian Internet. The Iranian Telecommunications Ministry has denied “shutting off the Internet” for its residents, but what differentiates this email limitation from previous ones such as the restriction on secure (HTTPS) traffic is its overt nature.
Ustream Adds Russian-Language Option In Response to Crippling DDoS Attack
Livestreaming website Ustream.tv received a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the morning of May 9 that reportedly targeted the prominent user “reggamortis1,” a Russian citizen journalist who covers opposition protests and rallies, and is associated with Occupy Moscow. The attack rendered Ustream unavailable for about 10 hours—and the reggamortis1 channel continued to be inaccessible for several hours afterwards.
Brazilian Paper Uses Trademark Law to Silence Parody Website
Falha de São Paulo, a parody website of the major Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, has been engaged in an ongoing legal struggle with its object of its satire. In September 2010, Folha filed a lawsuit against the Falha website for “moral damages” to its reputation as a news organization. Folha also sought financial compensation for Falha’s mimicry of their layout and copy-editing. This case resulted in a “tie” for both parties: Falha’s domain remained frozen for unauthorized use of Folha’s intellectual property, but the rest of the suit was dropped in accordance with existing Brazilian legal precedent.
Indian Government Demands VoIP Interception Capability In the Next Month
Indian government has ordered Internet service providers to provide a way to intercept and identify the end user on unregistered VoIP calls within the next month. Currently, ISPs do not have to keep track of real-time user data, which, according to the government, exacerbates security risks in a world of proliferating VoIP service providers who use varying connection frequencies.
Ayatollah Ali Khameni Victim of Iran’s Internet Censorship
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khameni has become the latest victim of Iran's Internet censorship regime. Indeed, the keywords that Khameni chose for the fatwa announcement last week against anti-filtering tools led to his own decree being blocked along with the Iranian websites where it was published.

 Currently, the Iranian Ministry of Telecommunications is choosing ignore these questions while looking for ways to improve its filtering and censorship systems. Khameni’s announcement has serious press freedom implications for journalists in the country who often need access to blocked websites.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/05/week-internet-censorship-iran-censors-internet-censorship-decree-indian-government

2. What reasons might a firm give for joining and supporting EFF?

     Helping for a reason they can have also gain more profit because their firm can be exposed to the world of this foundation. They give and they used the name of this foundation.
   
     History tells that story again and again around the world. As new aspects of society -- and whole new societies -- are built online, the EFF's mission is to protect that liberty.
The payoff, if it succeeds, is tremendous, a huge increase in economic prosperity and an incalculable dividend of personal freedom. Link: http://www.templetons.com/brad/eff.html/
     
                      

3. The vice president of public affairs for your midsized telecommunications equipment

company has suggested that the firm donate $10,000 in equipment and services to EFF and

become a corporate sponsor. The CFO has asked if you, the CIO, support this action. What

would you say?
     I give my very best to support to make easier and easy to manage to improved more the telecommunications equipment in the company.

CHAPTER 4 CASE STUDY

Discussion Questions

1. What type of security breaches of medical record are commonly today?

     There are many types of security breaches, but the most common ones are viruses and worms    that are usually acquired by carelessness of data handling.

2. What measures are being taken by the government and private industry to safeguard EHR's?

     The government has the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which is an act to protect the confidentiality of the healthcare user and data.

3. How do you think the implementation of ARRA will affect the privacy of our healthcare and personal data?      What breaches do you foresee? How can they be forestalled?

    In my opinion the ARRA has some issues regarding the privacy of the user’s health care and data. The security of the user’s data should always be considered.

Discussion Questions

1. How does Google's business model use personal data?

    I guess the most common here is the Google advertisement.

2. What do you think are the major privacy concerns raised by Google's business model and applications?

     I think the major privacy concern is the personal information of individual personal that uses a Google accounts.

3. Do you think Google has taken adequate measures to protect its user's privacy? Explain your answer.

 

   Google: Trust, Choice, and Privacy

   By: Gus Meuli, Caitlin Finn

“Trust is hard to earn, easy to loose, and nearly impossible to win back.”

This statement seems to ring true in the constantly changing world of business.  In a time where technology is developing faster than ever before, it is very difficult to regulate information privacy. Consumers have chosen to trust many companies with their private information in exchange for services that are used on a daily basis.  Google is in the middle of the debate about information privacy with its internet based services that collect and store enormous amounts of data about its users.  Through a detailed privacy policy, a consumer’s ability to choose between internet services and a trustworthy reputation Google has convinced consumers to use their products despite collecting and storing enormous amounts of personal information.  To certain degree information gathering can be ethical and very useful; however, Google has stepped over the boundary of ethics because of the amount of information they are gathering through their various products and their loose privacy policy that allows for third party exposure.  This behavior is unethical because it does not “most dutifully respect the rights of all affected”