Author Archives: ohyeahhhh

Privacy and SNS

Does Privacy Matter?

Privacy issue is one of the rising controversies of today. Many people claim that their private life is violated and are concerned about their privacy being exposed to those whom they do not know due to many Social Network Service (SNS) such as Facebook and twitter.

However, privacy is a double-edged sword. As privacy gets strengthened, the media and the services we can use decrease. On the other hand, if we use various convenient services SNS offers, our privacy will be invaded. Hence, it is up to the individuals on how far they want our personal information to be exposed and for them to use the service wisely.

Such an Oxymoron

An experiment was conducted by German researchers to reveal if people’s thinking corresponded to their actions. According to them, more than 90% people are willing to give away their personal information at the retail stores if they could receive discounts, and some even without discount, they did not mind providing their private information such as date of birth and monthly income. What was interesting was the result that was discovered through the survey. 95% of people who participated in this experiment said that “they are interested in the protection of their personal information” and 75% said “they have a very strong interest in data protection.” Their conception and action are contradicting.

This privacy invasion is made by mutual consent of the service user and the service provider. Even though we know that we get spam mails, we give away our information on various web sites for discounts and updates. Also, We still use the internet on a regular day basis even knowing the fact that internet providers can discover which websites and how many times we use it.

The purpose of using SNS is exposing ourselves and share what we have. It is very easy discovering friends’ schedule, where they are, what they think and etc. If we want to know Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s house price, and the value of share he has, we can just google it and  see what his house looks like through google earth. The authour of Viral Loop, Adam Penenberg stated, “We are hard-wired to socialize.” We are “biologically driven to commingle online and off.”

We should be the smart users

SNS is another way of communicating these days. If we post what we think about something or post what we feel like, then people comment on these. People sharing the information and the thoughts about the books, movies, and other activities with the people who have same interest are also very useful.

As long as we understand the consequence of sharing any kind of information, SNS is a very useful service to help individuals connect and gain insight to many things we are interested in. There is always a cost on obtaining something and if you do not want to share your ideas or information you can edit your account private.

Illegal Downloading

It is a crime

Many internet users today are accustomed to downloading copyrighted contents such as music, movies, books and softwares from the internet. Illegal downloading provokes various economical and social problems. I wonder, are they even aware of the criminal implications of it?

How it is uneconomical

One of the reasons to strengthen the protection against piracy is economic issue. According to The New York Times, in the U.S., the total amount of damage from illegal downloaders reach an estimated of 58 billion dollars every year and the damages include more than 373,000 employee job loss, and $16 million loss in employees’ earning and $3 billion of federal, provincial and municipal tax revenue. According to the statistics found by Recording Industry Association of America, it is not only the artists who are affected by music piracy but also includes songwriters, recording artists, audio engineers, computer technicians and etc.

Furthermore, The amount of damage through illegal downloading comes back to the consumer again. Even after technical protection measures have been placed on the contents, the computer professionals were still able to destroy them and upload the files on the web. Thus, no matter what recording companies and many other entertainment companies do to protect their intellectual property, people will somehow remove the protection and download the files. As the number of consumers who buys illegal product increases, the extra software cost such as copy protection increases to protect piracy, which then increases the product cost. Ultimately, we will be paying more than what we should for one product. Exploiting other people’s hard work and effort is not only morally wrong but it causes serious damage to the economy as jobs are lost from it.

How it is unethical

The artists, producers, movie directors and other staff members spend years working hard, putting all their effort and much money in developing and completing the product of their work. However, if the pirates steal their products, the creators lose millions of dollars instantly. The rightful owners who have the intellectual property have the right to make profit that was produced through the selling of their  products, because it is the rightful compensation of their hard work. However, if someone else other than the product creators earn money through illegal downloading, I think it is one of the most serious social problems in this country.

One of the Viacom executives said, “If intellectual property developed by creative people and covered by copyright was as respected as intellectual property developed by engineers and protected by patents, this problem would greatly improve”.

We can change

The easiest way the government can do to protect the piracy is educating people and enforcing the law. I remember what my friend told me when I said I bought a new video game when I was young. He told me I could download it online, however he was young at that time and did not know that it was illegal to download games at the file-sharing sites even if he paid. Perhaps, this is why the content piracy has been developed. we all know that stealing at any store is not allowed and therefore we do not do it, however people pirate online contents because they do not understand the seriousness of this crime due to the fact that many people do it. We all need to educate ourselves and our neighbors to achieve for better online community.

Illegal downloading is a result of the development of internet and improper use of someone’s work. As many people work hard to create and produce movies, musics, and other products to make our lives more entertaining and enjoyable, that we should thank them and compensate them properly for all their work.


It’s in our hands


What is sustainability and why we should be committed to sustainability?

The purpose of sustainability is to create the value by maximizing positive effects of social, environmental and economic issues and minimize the negative effects of it.

Sustainability is important because all of the decisions and actions we make today affect the future. The core idea of sustainability is for the future generations to have and enjoy the benefits of the environment and ecology we have today along with the resources as well.

The World Commission on Environment and Development’s 1987 report Our Common Future defined sustainability as, “Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable – to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept of sustainable development does imply limits – not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities. But technology and social organization can both be improved to make way for a new era of economic growth.”

It is important to be sustainable and support the companies that are committed to sustainability as it makes everyone healthier due to decreased pollution.

What is on process?

Becoming sustainable isa part of core businessstrategy for many companies now. Going green brings many advantages to the corporation when applied adequately and it should be one of the core principles that businesses use. David Kepler, corporate vice president of Shared Services and chief information officer of The Dow Chemical Company, stated, “To define sustainability as just “green” or “social responsibility” in the corporate context is to deprive it of its power to drive economic value and societal change.”

Dow, a chemical company, is one of the few corporates that realized the importance of sustainability. In 1995, it planned its sustainability goals and succeeded meeting most of them. They continue to improve their strategies on becoming greener and more sustainable.  In 2010, Dow and BASF corporate, North American subsidiary of the world’s largest chemical company, introduced the new production technology of hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide (HPPO).  This new method decreases 70 to 80 percent of wastewater and upto 35 percent energy used. This allowed the company to be recognized and acknowledged as an innovative company that improves resource efficiency, lifetime value and process optimization.

Walmart is one of the innovative companies that succeeded in adapting sustainability and successfully completed expanding the business and increasing the profit. Walmart believed that adapting sustainability was the best way to upgrade and it was the major business strategy to become a matured company. Also, it decided to ignore the fact that sustainability would increase its cost in the beginning because they knew that they would eventually benefit from it. Walmart had three sustainability goals: use only renewable energy resources, create zero waste and sell products that do not harm environment.

What can we do at home?

Nowadays, the young generations are very concerned and interested in protecting the environment and they take pride of the fact that they are protecting it. The easiest and fastest ways that all we can execute are the 3Rs-Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, like eliminating disposable cups, plates and flatware from our lives. I understand that it is impossible not to use disposable products, then why don’t we recycle instead of just throw them away?

Thrift is a great revenue!

For more information about how to sustainable everyday, visit http://www.sustainable-everyday.net/SEPhome/home.html