Mind and Body, Dualism vs Neuroscience Essay

The idea of the human beings having a soul, spirit or mind has long been used; although religions started using it four thousand years ago for different reasons, some people that simply had a thirst for knowledge started seeking a true answer to this question not that long ago. Indeed, this question has seriously been thought about and logically questioned in the last 400 years starting with Descartes who thought that human beings do have an immaterial mind (mind and body dualism). However, in the face of recent discoveries in neuroscience, it is not possible to maintain the theory of mind and body dualism as neuroscience has proved the brain to be the seat of mental faculties that are believed by dualist to come from the mind. First of all let us talk about mind body dualism in order to fully understand why it is now an obsolete theory. Dualists believe that the mind is non-physical and is separate from the brain which is physical. Moreover, they see the brain to be simply the location of where the mind operates (where the mind interacts with the physical world). Also, the body itself (brain included) is thought to have a different nature than that of the mind as one is physical and the other isn’t. On the other hand, we have physicalism. Physicalists think that everything that exists is physical and therefor what we call the mind does not exist as it is not physical. Descartes’ arguments for his mind and body dualism theory are however convincing if we ignore today’s recent discoveries and concentrate on philosophical reasoning; his first argument is that you can doubt everything in the material world but you cannot doubt that you are a thinking thing and exist. Let me explain this further: one of Descartes’ experiments was called Meditations. In his meditations he started assuming (for the purpose of his experiment and not in reality) that there was an evil genius that would deceive him on everything he though was true. Therefor everything he wasn’t absolutely sure was true had to be considered as untrue because he did not want to build up logic or reasoning on a weak foundation. In this way of thinking, he managed to doubt that the world, his hands, his body, and everything in the physical world was not true (because he would consider that the evil genius could make him think that he actually saw things that didn’t really exist). However, one thing could not be doubt, at this precise moment and since his birth, Descartes was thinking†¦ This simple truth could not be doubted; he had a mind and was using it to think. Descartes’ concluded that because one could be doubt and the other not, mind and body were of different nature. One of his more simple arguments, which is called the divisibility argument, is that as physical things such as bones, flesh, brain tissues and etc. occupy space in the physical world; thought-like things such as emotions, thoughts and the mind as a whole do not, and therefore are not physical. Moreover, Descartes has another argument called the conceivability argument which states that a human being can exists as a thinking things without his extended (physical) body existing (a mind or soul without a body) and that everything that can be conceived is logically possible. Therefor if it is logically possible that X exist without Y, then X is not identical with Y. Now that a background of information on mind and body dualism has been set, let us see why and how recent discoveries in neuroscience make it impossible to maintain dualism as a theory. The way I see things, neuroscience has provided evidences that we do not need to suppose the existence of an immaterial mind to explain life and behavior of human beings and also has proven that a lot of the mental faculties dualist attributed to the mind are in fact attributed to the brain. Contemporary neuroscience has greatly improved our understanding of the brain’s functioning; new imaging techniques enables scientists visualize the human brain in action and produces images that define the brain regions responsible for attention, memory, and emotion. The latter is the one of most interest in the present debate as emotions are believed to come from the mind. Emotional responses have been proved to be centralized in the limbic system. In this system we may find the amygdala and the hippocampus which are the primary areas managing emotions. Then there is the element of decision making. Any dualist would attribute the element of decision making or free will to the mind, however neuroimaging allows us to detect some decisions up to 10 seconds before the actual decision is taken by the individual with monitoring of brain activity (CAT, MRI or PET scans for example). This questions dualism because as dualists consider the mind to be immaterial, a good question is raised: how can the mind (immaterial) which supposedly makes the decision, be observed and predicted with material tools? Furthermore, a property of mind according to dualists is â€Å"behaviour†. Research studying victims of brain damage have found correlation between lost faculties or behavioural abnormalities and changes and localized damage in the brain. Phineas Gage is often the best example for this argument. Gage survived an iron rod that destroyed part of his left frontal lobe but suffered from severe personality change. It is noteworthy to specify that the personality change was big enough that his friend would no longer see him as Phineas Gage but as someone else. Even though Descartes’ philosophical reasoning is worth considering, contemporary neuroscience shows on different levels that what is believed to be an immaterial mind is actually the physical brain. Following Descartes’ own logic, it is necessary to consider all doubtful knowledge as false and start building from information that are certain â€Å"in order to establish anything firm and lasting in sciences† (Descartes, Meditation I). This being said, contemporary neuroscience is based on experimental proofs while dualism is based on theoretical thinking. However, neuroscience has not convinced everyone, where do you stand?

Asses the Extent to Which a Global economy Essay

Global economy is the incorporated world financial system with unobstructed and liberated movement of commodities, services and employment across nationals. This term can not be discussed in any of the today content minus appreciating the value of the globalisation in the society (Jones, 2006, pg 95). With this, we have to start by defining globalisation so that we may have to understand what is meant by the global economy that the paper will be discussing about in the later stage of it. Thus, globalisation is the incorporation of fabrication and utilization of various goods and services that do exist between the markets worldwide. As explained earlier on that, global economy can not be separated for m globalisation, the papers thus can then come up with a hypothesis it paper has to analyse and then later on prove whether the hypothesis it true of false. Thus, the hypothesis of the paper is: â€Å"The higher the globalisation in the world the higher the global economy in the markets across the world†. With this hypothesis in place, the paper will major in seeing on the ways in which globalisation has affected the global economy and to which extent that the economy is at present. In order to achieve all these, the paper looks forward in discussing on the extent to which this particular global economy exists in the society. With this, we will discuss on the history of the global economy, and then this will be followed with a discussion on the way in which the globalization has affected the economy in the world, and then will later look on the stage at which the economy is at present as compared to the past. In order to be able to accomplish all these, the paper has come up with some of the questions that it will major on so that to facilitate its study in global economy extent. The questions include; 1. How has been the past global economy? 2. How has the globalization affected the economy over the years? 3. How does the present global economy look like? 2. 0 Literature review Global economy is the built-in world financial system with unhindered and enlightened movement of commodities, services and employment across nationals. This term can not be discussed in any of the today content minus appreciating the value of the globalisation in the society. With this, we have to start by defining globalisation so that we may have to understand what is meant by the global economy that the paper will be discussing about in the later stage of it (Jones, 2006, pg 95). Thus, globalisation is the incorporation of fabrication and utilization of various goods and services that do exist between the markets worldwide. Thus this is the basic idea of the global economy as globalisation, other than just enhancing the living style of the people across the world, it also do enhance the economy of the nations in the world and thus determining the global economy. With this idea in mind, we can then say that, global economy is featured as the worldwide financial system that possesses the integrated market for every commodity manufactured all over the world. Thus, the global economy offers the local manufacturers with an opportunity to develop and upgrade their capacity of production to the worldwide level so that they can be able to attain the world demand and be able to meet the needs of the people in the world (Dickens, 2007, pg 68). This also has given the local producers the chance to decide on the commodity that they want to deal with from the broad selection of the imported goods in the market. Other than giving the manufacturers more and better chances for their business, the global economy also have had an advantage to the local people, in tat it has enabled the stabilization of the costs of the items all around the world. This has also lead to the transfer of works or activities as well as job from the established nations which are also known as the developed countries to the developing countries as income rate are seen to be reduced in this particular situation. With this factors of the globalization, it has enabled the change of the global economy over the years and thus, the paper will look at the past, the effects of the globalization for its change to the present stage of the global economy, so as to enable it to be able to evaluate on the extent at which it has evolved to its present existence. 2. 1 History of the Global Economy According to Alam (2003), global economy came up as the result of the British economy going subversive and then it started to attain power and advancevely its raw material form the mineral resources that they had in place at that particular time. This usage of the raw material enabled the economy to grow fast to the extent that it was able to free the world economy from the slim possessions constrictions of an organic and the plant based economy of the world (Clark, 2007, pg 33). This resulted into the introduction of cheaper materials of which were able to be transported to the various nations in the world at cheaper cost regardless of the location. To do this, the world was able to experience the effect of the economy in which it facilitated their growth of the economy. This resulted to the economy to be split into three segments of which the first segment constituted the concentration of power together with use of the technology in relation to producers in little capacity (Palmer, & Colton, 1971, pg 264). At this stage , the powerful countries such as those of Us and the prance had power over the little countries such as those in Africa and Asia in that, the powerful countries were forced to open their economies in the lees fortuned countries so as to facilitate they economy in the region. This resulted in the slow movement to the second segment of the global economy in which the other countries in Africa and Asia had started gaining power and thus had some of the influence in the economy of the worked in such a way that they could offer the labour needed in some of the activities worldwide. 2. 2 Globalisation in Relation to Global Economy Globalisation over the years has been the centre of discussion whenever the issue of global economy rises up, this has been because of the reason that it is directly connected to the economy of the world as with the better relations in the world markets, it means that the business will be to the advantage and thus increasing the level of the economy globally. With the result of the introduction of the new technology in the nations as the result if the globalisation in the nations, it has enabled the countries to experiences the increase or even the reduction on their economy status in the country (Pierre, 2000, pg 133). This has been attributed by the fact that technology has been able to facilitate the speed at which the nations relate to the other and thus, do the invention of the computers, the nations have been able to relate with the other in amore faster way and thus increasing the rate at which the affect their respective economy of which usually have a fraction I the global economy as well. 2. 3 The Present Global Economy In today world, the global economy has been termed as the neo-colonialism, this is the relationship between the developing countries and the advanced countries in term of their effort to participate in stabilizing the economy of one another, it is mostly occurs in the result of their relationship in the business sectors (Vasquez, 2001). When we take an example of the United States together with that of the Japan, we finds out that their economy has been to the decrease side over the past time but still they have the hope to improve as regard to the fact that they are hoping for the stabilization of the world wide financial market and thus, with this, will enable them to at least regain their economic status and thus increasing the power of it. The same down fall in the economy have been experienced by the developing countries have been over the years, this has been to the fact that the countries have been undergoing the interference in their financial flow which could allow then to participate fully in the growth of the economy (Browning, Halcli & Webster, 2000, pg 270). This has also been to the result of the declining of the oil as well as non-energy goods costs. None the less, with the stabilisation of their currency flow, they are expected to increase in their economy status. Conclusion In the finale, we can say that the global economy has been increasing over the years and this has been to the fact that the globalisation in the nations in the world has been gaining power with time due to the increase in the technology usage in their majority of their activities in the nations. Bibliography Alam, M. S (2003). The Global Economy since 1800. Retrieved 16th December 2008 from http://www. counterpunch. org/alam07262003. html Browning, G. K. , Halcli, A. & Webster, F. (2000). Accepting Contemporary Humanity: Theories of the Present. Pp 267-280. United Kingdom: SAGE Clark, G (2007). A Departure to Alms: A Concise Economic Account of the World. Pp 133-144. United States: Princeton University Press Dickens, P. (2007). Global Shift: Relocating the Changing Shape of the World Economy, pp 65-75. New York: Guildford Press Jones, A. (2006). Dictionary of Globalisation, pp 90-105. United Kingdom: Polity Publisher Palmer, R. R. & Colton, J. G. (1971). A History of the Contemporary World, pp 264. New York: Knopf Publisher Pierre, J. (2000). Assessment Governance: Authority, Navigation & Democracy, pp 110-137. United States: Oxford University Press. Vasquez, I. (2001). Come Back of a Global Financial System. Retrieved 16th December 2008 from http://www. cato. org/research/global/vas-0011. html

The purpose of the annual review is to reflect

The purpose of the annual review is to reflect on the past year’s endeavors, as well as to discuss and set attainable, mutually beneficial goals for the future. It should be viewed as a vehicle to share ideas and insights based on your work in the firm this past year. In your review please address the following: 1. Project Contributions: Design, Management, Client Relations, Technical, Teamwork and Profitability. I had been requested to work on a project in New Jersey, which required the renovation of the Korea Telecom office building.However, we could not accept their request due to our firm’s workload at that time. I have been making efforts at being a reliable team member by contributing my skills and knowledge in Auto CAD and other 3d program techniques to the current project and developing rapport among the team members. 2. Firm-wide Contributions: Leadership within firm, promoting firm to others, and business development. I have promoted the firm to potential inte rnational project partners and clients by giving out the firm’s brochures and my business cards to well-known and distinguished architectural firms in Korea.3. Growth: State how these contributions demonstrate growth from previous years’ performance. Even though I’ve had architecture practical experience for over 6 years in Korea, I started all over again in this firm in New York after finishing Graduate School last May 2006. 4. Improvements: How might improvements have been made – either in your performance or by the firm? When I first started working for the firm, I was confused with architectural unit and architectural drawings in terms of architectural drawing standard differentiations, which are different from the methods I was used to back in Korea.However, I got rid of those difficulties by understanding practical knowledge and learning U. S. standard architectural drawing. Now, I’m working on a construction document for the Chapin school pr oject team. 5. Goals: State your goals for next year. I definitely would like to become a more reliable and dynamic member of the architecture staff for this firm by improving my skills in practical drawing and creative drawing. I also hope to contribute to the success of this firm in becoming an internationally well-known design firm through my efforts in procuring international projects and/or partnership.

NSA and the 4TH Amendment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

NSA and the 4TH Amendment - Assignment Example An example of politics not impacting the choice one makes is the fact that the Democrats did nothing to take away the government’s assumed power of warrantless surveillance when they gained control of the White House and the Senate. Warrantless Surveillance will continue to be a mode of operation by the Federal Government. Things will continue to go pretty much as they have since 2001. There will continue to be court cases which will challenge the right of the government to engage in what some would call an illegal operation. It is hard to challenge the right of the government to engage in what some would call an illegal operation. It is hard to argue against the security of our nation as being a reason for gathering certain information and tapping foreign phone calls. When looking at utopia, our country would not need to gather this information because everyone would be doing what is expected of them and not out to harm their neighbor. The government would function as an arm of the people, providing for the common good of all Americans. The court system would be engaged in the enforcement of our laws and not arguing about what is constitutional or unconstitutional. A sad thing that would happen with the disappearance of warrantless surveillance, people would lose their job. The news shows on television would have to find something else to discuss and Senators Kerry and McCain would begin addressing more pressing

Personality Theorist Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Personality Theorist Paper - Essay Example Of these approaches, the psychoanalysis was captures the interest of many psychologists and ordinary people because of its startling applications and implications to human behavior (Jung, 1976). The psychoanalytic school of psychology was founded by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud. The central theory of the school that unconscious motivation and desires direct human behavior. The psychoanalytic model identified three key subsystems within an individual's personality: the ego, superego and id. The interaction of these three subsystems shapes observable behavior (Atkinson, 1993, p. 534). This school of thought assumes that a person's problems cannot be fully solved without understanding the unconscious influences in a person's early relationships may have contributed to the current problem of the person (p. 674). Psychoanalysis also gave birth to new outlooks on human behavior and installed Freud as one of the most recognizable names in the field of psychology. However Freud's apparent contracted and inflexible view of libido and other human behavioral motivations, which he basically viewed as sexual in context, left some of the dissatisfied and prompted them to diverge from the Freud (Booere, 2006). Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology. He used his background on Freudian theories to explore the "inner space" of the human psyche. He involved mythology, religion, and philosophy into his studies and became an expert in mystic symbolism. He concentrated on the study of dreams and their importation and devoted himself significantly to the study and correlation of Western and Eastern philosophical beliefs (Carl Jung, 2004). Carl Gustav Jung and Analytic Psychology According to Carl Jung, "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." (Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1989). Carl Jung tried to find the explanation to human behavior through exploring dreams, philosophy, religion and literature (Booere, 2006). His work provided archetypes of personality and behavioral theories that is still being used today by psychologist and has influenced other fields such as humanities, mythology and theology (Carl Jung, 2004). Jung's research created the idea of the complex, or cluster of emotionally charged associations. He disagrees with Freudian theory of the pervasiveness of a sexual basis for neuroses and the pessimism on human nature and motivation (Carl Jung, 2004). Jung established analytic psychology and brought forward the concepts of the introvert and extravert personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. He also created new method for psychotherapeutic that allowed a person to know his unique "myth" or place in the collective unconscious. His work is dominated by his study of dreams, their meaning and imagination (Carl Jung, 2006). The Archetypes Jung theorized that humans have a "preconscious psychic disposition" explains why a person reacts in a specific human manner (Jung, 1966). Jung worked on the reconciliation of the individual with supra-personal archetypes and linked the archetypes to heredity and instinct. Archetype had no form of its own and functioned more as an "organizing principle" or a structural notion of psychological existence (Booere, 2006). Jung's archetypes were as

Product Quality Testing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Product Quality Testing - Essay Example The big question here is how much testing needs to be done, because the testing requires time, which is precious because the clients and users want the product as soon as possible. The paper will include sources that will be used in order to support the question of how much testing needs to be done in order to ensure a good quality product and to show that there is a problem when too much or too little testing is done. A review of literature will be presented to show how we come up with the conclusion. The review includes the study done by Rothman (2001) on release criteria. Rothman (2001) tackles when to release a software/ Also in the article written by Barbara Tallent (2008) she discusses when it is enough for testing and releases it in market. At the end of the paper a conclusion was given and the paper will try to find the best answer on the addressed question. In the article written by Johanna Rothman (2001) "Release Criteria: Defining the Rules of the Product Release Game," he discusses the problems involve in releasing the product early. He also point out that the decision of releasing the product comes from the higher authority of the organization usually the production managers. The article includes the case of Rita who heads the team in developing software. The production manager is being pressured by the customers and needs to release the product as soon as possible. In order to do so Rita and PM releases criteria for the team to decide. The criterion includes; All code must compile and build for all platforms Zero high priority bugs For all open bugs, documentation in release notes with workarounds All planned QA tests run, at least 90 percent pass. Number of open defects decreasing for the last three weeks. Feature x unit tested by developers, system tested by QA, verified with customers A, B before release. All open defects evaluated by cross-functional team. The decision in releasing the product at earlier time should comply with the release criteria. The release criteria objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and trackable. Before releasing the product it should agreed upon by the entire project team and understood by senior management. The reasons for such release should be reasonable enough. Rothman (2001) in the article uses the release criteria to evaluate whether the product can be release or not. This also assesses the entire project and the prediction of an early warning on the incoming problem on the product. Based on the article a product can be released as long as it complies with the release criteria created by the team. Another review on the immature release of the product is shown in the article written by Bernadette Tallent (2008). In this article she presented a case study wherein the VP of marketing for a software company was about to release a new product. The product was incomplete and the team knows it. Extensive user testing on the product has been done and they concluded that the product was missing several key features. Meetings have been done to assess whether or not to release the product in the market. In order to decide in releasing or not releasing the product the group listed trade offs: Reasons to Release The product was stable The product was due to be announced at an Internet World - if we missed the release date we would miss the

THEORIES OF LATE CAPITALISM AND THE WORLD SYSTEM Essay

THEORIES OF LATE CAPITALISM AND THE WORLD SYSTEM - Essay Example With that respect, this essay will seek to highlight and address this problem as well as identify solutions provided by both theorists. Francis Fukuyama assert that the loss of social order as depicted by capitalism was a not matter of poor memory or nostalgia but rather a matter of hypocrisies committed in the early ages of communism. Most recently, as Francis reveals, there has been frequent occurrence of seismic shifts during the fall of 1980s. These shifts involve strategies set in place by governments of the developed countries such as the United States with the aim of harnessing economic power (Harvey 43). The issue regarding if the information age democracies have the ability to withstand social order while facing economic and technological change are part of the greatest challenges encountered by these economic super powers. Philosopher Francis argues that, there exists a strong logic backing the evolution of political institutions pointing towards modern liberty democracy, b asing on mutual relations between stable democracy and economic development. However, the most worrisome aspect as described Francis is that, this progressive tendency lacks social and moral development. His failure to include politics and ecology in his work derives bases from the general tendency of the contemporary basics where liberal democracies fall victim to excessive individualism. Francis makes it clear that the liberty of the modern state premised on the concept whereby the interests political peace, the government would not be in a position to sideline differing moral claims as put forward by traditional culture and/or religion (Harvey 45). In their theories, there is no examination of the ecological implications of modernism or the theoretical practices of postmodernism in relation with the environment to assess whether they repress modernist assumptions or encourage non-exploitation. Their failure to address these issues inevitably reflects the supposed conditions of po stmodernism and discussions based on political stratagem. As a matter of course, their theories omit space analysis into spatial politics as opposed to other theorists (Harvey 46). Indeed, theories of postmodernism bear a strong family resemblance to those ambitious sociological generalizations that bring people the news of the arrival and the inauguration of a new type of society baptized as postindustrial society. To their own relief, these theories have the obvious ideological mission of illustrating that the new social formation does no longer obey the laws of late capitalism. Situation of the problem Their failure to address politics and ecology has made learners fail to understand that despite the increasing global division of poverty and wealth, dependency theory together with its thesis concerning the structural domination of the capitalist West over the developing countries or simply, the Third World, is all but dead. According to Francis and David’s theories of late capitalism, the passing of dependency theory has been faltering, slow, and at the same time inexorable. Now, it is a reduced theoretical political memory in both mainstreams in international relations writing mentioned only as interesting historical lineage (Gray 47). This omission is not very helpful, at best, since

Newly Industrialized Countries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Newly Industrialized Countries - Essay Example According to the study the NICs face a challenge as to make their development sustainable they need to manage the process of development efficiently. They also need to combat poverty, preserve natural resources, and promote rural development. Not all decisions take by such NICs have proved to be right in the long run and the other developing countries have lessons to be learnt if they are seeking to grow faster. This paper highlights that countries can either opt to have an import-substitution strategy or export-oriented strategy. The first generation NICs included Spain, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia, Brazil and Mexico, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. These countries started to lose their comparative advantage as unskilled labor became scarce and wage rates started to rise. This implies that trade plays an important role in helping the developing countries to take off. Stiglitz suggests that trade liberalization must be balanced in agenda, process and outcome. Trade liberalization should concentrate not only in sectors that developed countries have comparative advantage, like financial services, but also in which the developing countries have special interest like agriculture and construction services. The developing countries have a disadvantage in participating in negotiations. Not having a representation in WTO serves as a disadvantage. Developing countries face greater vola tility and opening to trade contributes to that volatility. Developing nations have persistent problems of high unemployment. Trade liberalization is necessary but not sufficient to reap full benefits from integration into world economy. The costs of liberalization in developing nations are higher. Thus, the developing countries seeking to grow fast should ensure that they have a comprehensive approach in liberalizing trade.

Focus Groups Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Focus Groups - Essay Example The colours used to identify objects, the tone used to communicate , and the environment in which it is done all are important with teaching a particular subject matter. The method by which an instruction is passed on coupled with the quality of content also has an impressionable impact on understanding capability of the recipient. To support the above hypothesis a study was conducted on two groups of children from kindergarten, each group comprising of 10 children between the age group of the age 4 to 5 years .So that there is minimum disparity in the final results due to the level of understanding among the children of the two groups the IQ of the children in both the groups was almost the same. The main purpose of choosing this segment of kids was their total dependence on their facilitators for explaining the content to them. Unlike a slighter older group who can get study materials from reference libraries and the internet, this group due to their limited exposure, would have minimal external influence on the material they would be taught . Their understanding on the subject matter would depend mainly on the method of instruction, the kind of content and the mediums used to deliver it. The first group ( Group 1) was exposed to Montessori way of education and the second group (Group 2) to the traditional public elementary school way of conducting classes. The experiment was presided over by two experienced teachers. Children from both the groups were to be evaluated on a spelling test of 30, five lettered words which would be conducted after a period of about 20 days. The outcome of the two groups would be evaluated on the average scored, scored by each group. Group 1 was introduced to phonetics through the Montessori method of education which lays more emphasis on child development and the over all build up of the child. Here the children were exposed to phonetics in the play way method which helps them learn the spellings by recognising

I.C.T In Our Society Essay Example for Free

I.C.T In Our Society Essay This report is about how ICT has affected us as a society. For example, for entertainment purposes like games consoles, communication purposes such as mobile phones, storage purposes such as storing music on a CD or for social purposes such as email. E-mail The first thing I will look at will be email. With email you can quickly talk to friends, work colleagues, basically anyone who has an email address. I have two email accounts, one at home provided by hotmail, which is useful because I can log-on to it anywhere via the Internet. I also have one at school provided by Solihull L.E.A, which I can only access at school; both have a unique log-on I.D and password. With my personal account (hotmail) I can choose a unique login I.D and password when I register, providing it ends with @hotmail.com. With my school account I can only choose the password. As a student my school account is free and I get absolutely no junk mail thanks to the junk-mail filter and I can receive emails from anyone. The L.E.A also scans every email for anything suspicious such as files containing viruses; if one of these are found then the L.E.A will not let the email through. Email is useful and easy and is an efficient way to contact my friends and relatives. If I want to get in touch with several people in one email I simply put a semi-colon in between each persons email address. If I want to get in touch with several people, email is one of the easiest ways to do so. I can set up an address book which means I could email everyone in that address book at once, also by setting up an address book I dont have to remember everyones email address and it helps me stop making mistakes. Workers in offices usually have email accounts open all day, which means if they receive an email the response time is very quick. The problem with email is that if the inbox becomes full I couldnt receive any more emails until I had deleted some of my old ones. Pictures take up a lot of space and some pictures can be too big to send in the first place. Say for instance I had done a word document in history on Hitler and the Nazis, I may want to carry on with it at home but when I come to send it, I cant because I have too many pictures on there that take up space. Also if someone doesnt have broadband than it could take a long time to attach a document or presentation to an email and even with broadband it could take a long time depending on the size of the file. A good thing about most email accounts is that they are free but then I get a lot of adverts and pop-ups. If email companies are going to give people free email then they need to get the money from somewhere to make sure they can afford the payment of the site, this is where the adverts and pop-ups come in, other companies pay companies such as hotmail to put their adverts and pop-ups on their websites hence hotmail can pay for the upkeep of the site. I can set up a filter on my email account so that I only receive emails from people in my address book. The problem is though that before I can receive emails from someone I need to add them to my address book and if someone changes their email I need to edit my address book. The alternatives to email are fax, which can be quick but can cost a lot of money, or text that is quick so long as the other person has their phone on; you also need signal and credit, which can be a problem. Both can be useful if email is not available, but when compared to the quickness and the fact that email is basically free, email is the best thing to use. To conclude, email is useful to communicate with people no matter where they are in the world mostly free of cost, which means it can be better than a mobile phone or fax but due to the time difference between countries, there is no guarantee that they will receive the email in the time you need them to see it. Entertainment The next thing I will look at will be the entertainment side of ICT and for this I will look at games consoles. There is a lot of competition at the moment between the PS2 made by Sony, the Gamecube made by Nintendo and the Xbox made by Microsoft. People use games consoles for 3 main purposes; the first is single player use where the player simply plays the game on their own trying to complete the game. The second is multiplayer use where two or more people can play on one console and either try to complete the game cooperatively or go against each other in different game types. The third is online play, which has only recently taken off since broadband became so popular. At the moment there is no prospect for online play on the Gamecube but Xbox and PS2 have successful online play. Players who want to play online need broadband to play because dial-up cant handle the speed that is required. The Xbox online play is called Xbox Live and players make an account for à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½40 a year and can make a list of friends and whenever their friends are online they can join them and play with them. The problem is that if two friends want to play together they both need the same game and both need to be online. Also, if broadband is no t available then people cant play online. I use an Xbox and play Xbox Live quite often. I have experienced problems though, for example my broadband router had broken and I couldnt go on Xbox Live until I got it fixed, also the Xbox Live service had not responded which again meant that I couldnt use the service. The other problem is that paedophiles are able to use the service so you never know if the person you are talking to is being genuine or not. People also use games consoles for watching DVDs but this has only become available in the newer consoles. With the Xbox you can also put a CD into the Xbox and save it to the integrated hard disk and can then play the CDs while your playing a game. Again this is technology that has only recently been introduced. Another type of entertainment is digital TV. Originally TV and radio used analogue signals but over the past few years more and more digital radios and digital TVs have become available. A digital signal is basically a TV or radio signal that is computerised and has to be decoded at the receiving end in order to watch digital TV or listen to virtually crystal clear music on a radio. Digital television (DTV) allows you to receive digital transmissions from different TV stations that have installed digital transmitters and record their programmes using equipment that can handle digital signals. With DTV you can enjoy excellent quality pictures and clear sound. But all good things come at a price and in order to watch Digital TV you must buy either a digital TV adaptor for an existing TV, which will cost about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½100, or you can buy a new integrated DTV television set known as a iDTV for about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500. I use Digital TV because I have Sky Digital. It is a good quality picture and good sound and also doesnt cost too much at approx à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20 a month. I have a digibox, which is basically a small box on top of or underneath the TV and the signal comes through a Sky dish on the side of my house. The signal is then transferred to the digibox and I can watch the channel I want on my TV. There are a lot of channels on Sky and I only have a few of them. There are also movie channels which show movies 24/7 on about 12 different channels, and sport channel which shows sport 24/7 on about 15 different channels, but to have all these channels can cost over à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50 a month. The disadvantage comes when there is bad weather. In heavy rain the signal often gets interrupted which means that either no signal is received or a very poor signal is received. As in a thunderstorm, the signal gets interrupted and no signal can be received. Other problems can be if the station I am receiving the picture from is experiencing technical problems no signal can be received. Most of the time though the quality is good and there is no problem. A revolutionary new technology that Sky has introduced is called Sky plus. With this you get a new digibox and Sky plus allows you to pause live TV, record shows and watch them later without the use of a VCR. You can even rewind live TV if you want to watch something again, such as a good goal in a football match. If you do stop or rewind then a little counter comes up on screen that tells you how far behind the live TV you are, then by simply pressing play on the remote control you can carry on watching from where you paused it or you can just go back to the live TV by pressing the sky button. This is technology that has only recently been introduced and costs an extra à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 on top of whatever sky package you already have. Storage Media There are a lot of different types of Storage Media. Originally data was stored on floppy disks but space was limited and the disks were quite large. Consequently there soon became a need for more and more space to store things on. Floppy disks could only hold 1.4mb of data but then zip drives became available which could hold different amounts of data, the maximum of which was 250mb. The disadvantage of this was that you couldnt put the disk straight into your computer. You had to buy a zip drive which either connected to the computer through USB or you could plug it straight into the computer. This was only a short- term solution and demand came for more and more space. The answer was compact disks, known as CDs for short. Originally designed to hold music, CDs could hold up to 700mb of data, an ideal source for storing data. Nowadays computers are fitted with CD-Rewriters (CD-RW), which can store music on a CD, make a copy of a CD, or just store es.here are currently two types of disks available they are: CD-Record (CD-R) this can only have files or music stored on it once and then you cant add or take anything off the CD. CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) this can have music or files stored on it as many times as you want. If you add something and feel you want to add more, you can easily do this. You can now get a DVD type disk. These can hold much more data than normal CDs but they do cost more and will not work on some older computers. I usually use CD-R to store music because CD-RW does not work on some CD players, which can be a problem. If I want to store data on a CD however I usually use a CD-RW as most computers can read these and I can always add more data at a later stage. Businesses use CD-RW on their computers because if they have data that they want everyone in the office to have, then they can simply put the data on a CD and make numerous copies of it. They can then give everyone in the office a copy of the CD. At school we use CD-RW. For example, in the ICT course, the school wanted us each to have two CDs. They had the two CDs they wanted and then copied them and gave everyone doing the ICT course a copy to take home. The CDs had useful software and information on that I will use while doing the ICT course. The obvious disadvantage to storing data or music on CDs is that if the CD becomes full then no more data can be put onto the CD. If you want to put a PowerPoint presentation and a word document on a CD then the presentation may take up a lot, maybe even all, the space. This will depend on the content and how many pictures it has on it. If the presentation does take up all the space then there wont be enough room for the word document and that would mean you would have to use another CD. That would be an inconvenient because you would have to carry two CDs around. The alternative to CDs is email but the amount of data that can be sent by email can be limited. Also the person who needs the information may not have access to a computer. Another alternative is to print all the information on paper and post it to the person who needs it. Communication Mobile phones are everywhere these days and virtually everyone has got one. Mobile phones used to be much larger than they are now and were a big inconvenience to carry around, as they couldnt just fit into your pocket like the mobile phones of today. Only wealthy businessmen owned them, as they were expensive to both use and buy. As with all things, over time they got smaller and smaller and now they can be very small and more and more people have them. They are even regarded as a necessity to young people. People dont just use mobile phones for calling other people though. Texting has become a very popular way to communicate, especially amongst the younger generation. There are two main types of message; Short Message Service (SMS) this is the most common use of texting and one of the most useful. A message, just like an email, of up to 150 characters can be sent to one or more people at once for an average of 10p per message. Due to the small amount of characters a texting language has developed to reduce space and therefore enable you to say more in a message. An example of this language would be you has been shortened to just u. They both sound the same but one takes up fewer characters than the other. Hundreds of thousands of these messages are sent every day from mobile to mobile and providing signal is good and both people have there mobile phones on, a text message can be sent from here to Australia in an amazing 6 seconds. New services have become available using text messages. For example phone companies such as Vodafone allow mobile phone users to subscribe to a service where football or cricket scores can be sent to the subscribers phone as soon as they happen. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) Another recent development, MMS is an advanced form of SMS. Instead of just sending a message, new mobile phones will allow you to send photos, or you could send ringtones, or a pre-recorded voice message. These new phones are a little heavier then old mobile phones, but they are more sophisticated. For instance, if you go on holiday, instead of sending a postcard to your friends and family you could just take a picture using the inbuilt camera and send it using an MMS message. You can even add some writing to it. I have a new mobile phone with a digital camera; I can take good quality pictures and then send them to my friends. I also use a mobile phone to text my friends but to do this I need a good signal and sufficient credit. Businesses use mobile phones, especially people that travel around a lot and are not based in one location all the time. Salesmen would find it hard to manage without mobile phones, as they need to be able to keep in touch with their customers, and with one another, at all times. One major disadvantage of mobile phones is that they are thought to emit radioactivity. Although this has not been proven there are many people that believe that radio masts and mobile phones are a health problem to them and there are strict planning laws regarding the positioning of radio masts.

Factors That Influence Traditional Marketing

Factors That Influence Traditional Marketing Recently it has been evidenced in some literature that, ICT applications such as workflow systems, groupware systems, e-mail, and data transfer through Internet and videoconferencing may have diluted some of the traditional market functions which were used by many marketers in facilitating their day to day marketing techniques. This new way of doing business has some effects to the future market due to the different levels of technological advancement the community has. In terms of implications for global marketing, the impact of ICT activities would have its strongest impact on product development decisions. The trend towards modular designs and the companion platform product strategy in which a firm designs a common core with different versions for different segments is likely to accelerate.1 Principally, marketing is the science of choosing target markets through market analysis and market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer buying behavior and providing superior customer value still needs a wider discussion.2 The main goal of marketing is to make profit by satisfying customer demands and needs. It is also a strategy that can make a business to grow and become powerful. It is the market target which will define the type of marking structure the marketers might choose to adopt. However, there is an ongoing battle between these types of marketing such as traditional marketing and the marketing which utilizes the advancement of information technology in determining which is better than the other. This being the case; there is a need of identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each marketing type. Objectives: The main objective of this paper is to examine the impact of ICT on Traditional Marketing and to discuss the prospects and challenges of the changing roles for future marketing. Methodology: The group worked on different materials from the internet, books, journals, interviews and class presentation on marketing and marketing management Conclusion: Basing on different presentations, books, papers and some formal and informal interview answers, the authors have come to a conclusion that, the combination of the two ways of marketing may be important for successful marketing functions in global markets. With respect to emerging the ICT revolution, internet which is mostly used as a communication channel it has a large impact in marketing and a strong tool of reaching large audience. INTRODUCTION: ICT is an acronym that stands for Information and Communication Technology. ICT is used in marketing as a process of marketing a product or service using the information communication technology channels. ICT marketing being a process of marketing a product or service using the advanced Information communication technology, it utilizes strategies like website creation, search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads, social media, pay-per-click advertising and email marketing. In this process, marketing a brand using digital media is used to help connecting business to their customers. Business activities are conducted via the worldwide web (www) with the aim of attracting new business, retaining current customers and/or business and developing its brand identity. The application of ICT in marketing helped in achieving marketing objectives and the modern marketing concepts which enables marketers to distribute their products and increase their customer base and makes it easier for stakeholders to access market and management data, share information and to build trading partnerships. As a marketing tool; ICT has attracted more customers and has influenced marketing decisions due to its easy accessibility and utilization hence adds value and improved company business and revenues. It enables consumers to collect information as the prices can be accessed online. However, marketers need to make creative and innovative use of information employing both technology and intuition to tease out trends and opportunities. Adding on the application of ICT in marketing, Strauss et al (2003)3 suggest that ICT in marketing covers a wide range of IT related applications with three main aims such as one; transforming marketing strategies to create more customer value through more effective segmentation, targeting, two; differentiation and positioning strategies; planning and executing the conception, distribution, promotion and pricing of goods, services and three satisfy individual consumer and organizational customers objectives. Marketing Marketing can be said to be the management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of product, price, place and promotional strategy. Marketing consists of the strategies and tactics used to identify, create and maintain satisfying relationships with customers that result in value for both the customer and the marketer. Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction and it differs from selling because selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs.4 Led by marketing scholars from several major universities, (name the personauthor who say this.)5 substantiate the development of marketing in large part be motivated by the need to dissect in greater detail relationships and behaviors that existed between sellers and buyers. In particular, the study of marketing led sellers to recognize that adopting certain strategies and tactics could significantly benefit the seller/buyer relationship. Basic Marketing Functions Marketing is all about identifying and meeting human and social needs. it is the art which marketers use to understand their customers. There are some basic marketing functions highlighted as follows:- Market Research and Information Management, Product Management, Market management , Sales management, Physical distribution management and Promotion research. 2.0. Overview of Traditional Marketing Traditional marketing utilizes strategies like direct sales, TV, radio, mail, print advertising eg. Magazines, coupon, books, billboards, and promotional materials. A marketer who adopts the traditional method will use the unique selling proposition to market a particular product from a particular brand with less number of competitors. However, this adaptation to the marketing plans and strategies end in advertising. The method believes that, advertising which exposes the product to the world and places it is the best platform to target customer. Traditional marketers understand marketing to be comprised of four mixed facets, known as the Four Ps: Price, Product, Placement and Promotion. 2.1. Factors that influence the traditional marketing: With selling as the ultimate goal, marketing strategies are influenced by two basic factors: first is acquisition of customers, second is retention of the acquired customers. So every other strategy that is laid out will focus on these two. A Company has to work closely towards achieving these factors to attain the desired cutting edge over its competitors. Together with the two factors; there are also a few other objectives such as creating awareness through information and education of the product, brand-building and accelerating sales which must accompany the utilization of the traditional marketing factors. Traditional marketing encourages person-to-person selling as a most popular marketing strategy. Customers can directly be able to see the product, test it and decide to buy a product or service he has seen. Moreover, it is a marketing type which is tangible as it offers hard copy material. There is something to be said about handing a consumer some tangible printed material they can flip through at their leisure. With few advantage of a Traditional Marketing, there is however negative factors that brings changes such as expensive Cost Prohibitive: Purchasing advertising for TV, radio or print can be very costly prohibitive to most small businesses. Printing hard copy brochures, business cards and mailers is expensive. When using the traditional mode, it is difficult to track results. It is like throwing things against the wall and hoping they stick. It is tough to track real quantitative results. This being the case, it is usually requires outside help by using things such as printing materials, buying media and creating radio advertisements all require hiring outside help, which adds to costs. Lastly, the method forces upon consumers to a product or service, they dont necessarily ask for it. 3.0. Over view of the ICT Society forces have managed to facilitate the creation of the new marketing behavior and opportunities. With the advances in technology, globalization, privatization, retail transformation, customer buying power; which brings more accurate level of production, technological advances, make it easier for the markets to increase efficiency, branding, collect richer information, direct selling and quick delivery of product. ICT as a means to facilitate eMarketing is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, transmission or receipt of digital data. Importantly, it is also concerned with the way these different uses can work with each other to achieve a certain objective. 3.1. Factors affecting ICT in marketing The ICT has some advantages and disadvantages in the marketing. Some of them are that when the marketer use this marketing type, it is easier to measure the results. Data and results are available immediately when needed for decision making. These data can be made using both real data and qualitative results on whether to market certain product or service or not as the data collecting system is accurate and is governed by programmes which are computerized. ICT has the ability to drill down into your demographics to accurately reach your target market. The use of social media and networking allow the marketers to communicate directly with groups or even individual consumers. The ability to build direct relationships with your customers via social media and communities is guaranteed. ICT can facilitate, marketing research, company can facilitate and speed up internal communication, achieve substantial savings by using the internet to compare sellers price and purchase materials With some few advantages, ICT has some disadvantages such as time consumptions, third party ability to mismanage posted information, sources of power to run the machines, save the strong and lose the weak, Searching in the web to obtain the product or service required time and space. Consumer is forced to search for a required product in different webs to obtain a brandy needed. With the utilization of time, this mode is not of benefit. There is no reliability and customers interaction hence increase intangibility. Customer has to choose whether to buy the product displayed in the web or choose for the other product elsewhere. The art of interaction increases ownership and customer brand loyal to a certain product. It can be highly demanding on the web owners as it requires continuous content creation, edited, approved and published comments must be responded to and sites and pages must be maintained every time. This requires manpower which is effective and can quickly respond to the customer needs. Furthermore, the use of ICT can create classes as it saves the strong and loses the weak. It is the stronger who can manage to pay for the services and be able to access the ICT marketing hence the middle and lower class customers who cannot access the web pages are exonerated. Impact of ICT in Traditional Marketing Functions The two types of marketing are geared towards obtaining maximum marketing results with customer satisfaction as a major objective. Marketing being a collective process where individuals can exchange goods or services based on their needs and wants, the marketing mix principle of the product, price, place and promotion is used. (10) [Philip Kotler, 2003, Marketing Management]. However, each one is useful depending on the desired objective, population and especially the marketing mix the community has. ICT maintains a database of information for record purpose, analysis, research and production of management reports is enhanced for decision making, physical distribution is enhanced through fleet tracking systems, warehouse stock monitoring tools, distribution monitoring and controls, promotion research, etc. the traditional marketing has also database depending on the retail and selling of the product for the warehouse to retail outlets, advertising and customer responses to the advertised product. Customers in the ICT marketing cannot experience the quality and size of the product by just seeing it on the website in the same way as seeing the product in a physical store. The attitude of not being able to reach and feel the product physically, can create doubts for the customer and have an effect on his/her purchasing decision.11 (Philip Kotler) whereas in the traditional marketing product is tangible for the customer to touch, view and feel. When it comes to a range of products offered through Internet compared to physical stores used in the traditional marketing, there is an advantage of possibility for a company to offer a wide range of products on their website.12 The issues that can appear here are cost and space for inventory and store space itself, where there is a connection between cost and space in the traditional marketing. The issue of customer service and how it can reach the customer has some impact on both marketing modes. It is more difficult to provide customer service through Internet compared to face to face contact when the customer visits the physical store or a selling point. The customer can get a quick response and reaction from the staff when getting a service in the physical store, where as through Internet the customer is dealing with a so called fixed service. And even though there might be possibility for communicating through e-mail or support chat function, the response and communication of service will not be as personal and quick as it could be when communicating face to face. One issue that can affect the customers choice of purchase is the warranty of the good. This gives comfort to customers, both in traditional marketing and Internet marketing but most importantly it gives the secure feeling to those purchasing online. The customer that cannot see and touch the product when purchasing it would feel more secure knowing that there is a warranty on the product and this would make the choice of purchase easier and less risky. The pricing of a product can be based on the costs of its process in reaching the market. When a company does Internet marketing it has a bigger opportunity to save costs and therefore a bigger possibility to have lower prices on a particular product. The traditional marketing has more cost implications as one of the reasons for this is the cost of space for keeping the products than the cheap way of communication through internet by e-mail. When marketing through Internet, the competition is very tough with the effect in the pricing setup. The competitors are a click away when a potential customer is searching for information on the Internet. Since payments for purchase through Internet are done by credit card mostly, there can be some security issues that create problems. For example a customer would feel more secure paying in the physical store where they can have more control over the payment process; whereas purchasing online is by taking a risk when giving the credit card details. In traditional marketing, companies have the opportunities to decorate the stores in order to create a specific atmosphere that can attract customers. Some attractive tools to create that atmosphere can be music, colors, tea, coffee etc, but through Internet marketing it is almost impossible to create a real sensation since a website is just a virtual image. Even though many of the websites try to create an atmosphere by adding the same tools for attraction, they cannot create as real experience as can be created in the physical store. The atmosphere of the store is mentioned to be very important for sales of the products. For example if you see an unorganized store just filled up with some clothes you hardly feel tempted to go in and look for anything. The way the store is decorated gives a message about the company and its style. When one thinks about this, one can realize the importance of the physical existence of the store. Think for example how the company could offer the same atmosphere through the website. But in the end the experience of stepping into the store is different than clicking on computer when shopping. Internet helps companies to be reachable at any time, regardless of openings hours that physical stores require. Also the possibility for the customers to reach the store location online and the range of customers that can do that is much wider compared to the physical location of the store. When it comes to promotion, one thing which is clear is the difference between the communication through traditional and Internet is the speed. Speed of getting the message of advertisement, news or any type of information through to customers is very quick through Internet. This is a very important issue in the competitive world of business. Another difference between promotion by Internet and promotion by traditional ways is the durability of the marketing message the marketer wants to communicate with the customers. In traditional manner, the message would receive attention during a limited amount of time, for example as it is aired on TV or sent out as paper advertising, whereas on the Internet, the message to the customers can exist constantly on the companys website. Through a website, a company can present itself in many ways where the customer can study different aspects of the company and get to know it well where as this is not possible in the same way through traditional tools for promotion. For example the complexity of wide range of information cannot be easily fitted into a magazine advertising or TV commercial etc. The tools for traditional promotion can be used mainly in communicating the message shortly and consistently. There is also a burden of maintaining a website or online commercials that consume time, resources, technology, skills and money will be mostly used. But this should be weighted out by the accessibility and opportunity they provide. The traditional marketing only requires the selling channel which can be physically observed and maintained. Nowadays a large group of consumers have the problem of time but have the money to spend; therefore it can be easier for them to shop online and saving time when spending. The image, speed, design and generally every aspect of the website of a company is very important. 5.0. Prospects and Challenges of the changing roles for future marketing 5.1. Prospects for future Marketing: As it was discussed earlier, marketing is largely affected by societal forces which then affect marketing behaviors and opportunities. Recent approaches in marketing with a focus on the customer, business marketing or industrial marketing with focus on an organization or institution and social marketing with focus on benefits to society, have creates new forms of marketing such as the internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, online marketing, search engine marketing, or desktop advertising. This marketing attempts to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope, because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Technological advancements can lessen barriers between countries and regions. By using webs, firms can quickly dispatch information from one country to another without much restriction. Prior to the mass usage of the Internet, such transfers of information would have taken longer to send, especially if done via snail mail (postal mail), telex, etc. The advancement in technology provides companies with a new tool for direct marketing and advertising that may be cost effective and provide maximum delivery to targeted customers. Recently, there has been a large emphasis on data analysis. Data can be mined from various sources such as online forms, mobile phone applications and more recently, social media. Marketers can collect fuller and richer information about markets, customers, prospects and even competitors. Internet marketing makes the market reachable at anytime regardless of the time and opening hours restrictions that the physical store may require. Shopping of product and services can be done on line and selling transactions is concluded within a short time. It saves time to attend and concentrate on one item. Product or service can be represented in different designs and quickly utilized when viewed under the internet. During this time of globalization, the technological advancement has overtaken all other means of life so do the market atmosphere. With Internet, marketers have a great opportunity to offer sales promotions such as competitions or price reductions to those who visit the companys website. This can encourage the customers to visit that website again and this way of interacting with the customers provides the means for the company to build a long term relationship with their customers. Internet is a new medium for public relations and it offers companies the opportunity to publish the news directly while in traditional marketing they would wait for periodical publications or brochures. They can use Blogs, Podcasts/ Internet radio shows, online newsrooms and media kits. 5.2. Challenges for the changing roles for future marketing Legal issues and specific Internet legislation are vitally important and online marketers should fully be aware of the law wherever they trade whether it is within their own national boundaries, or inside an economic trading bloc such as the European Union or in other nation states. Time, money, litigation and public relations damage can be avoided by being familiar with the relevant legislation and applying to the organisations both in the public and private sector. The problems associated with the Internet that marketers must understand and respond to such as customer resistance to change, especially older and disadvantaged people; public concerns over privacy issues, such as SPAM and chat-rooms, lingering security doubts over fraud and phishing (hackers) and network security and stability (worms). Lack of trust with unknown virtual traders, the Internets sensory boundaries limiting of senses like taste and touch which influence buyer decisions, limited web access for low-income groups and those in rural areas, continued high costs of broadband connections deterring high speed take up, social impact of the Internet such as debts generated from online gambling. Poor levels of online customer service and fulfillment, technology gap between users and providers, complexities of cross-border trading, failure to provide an exciting and reliable online shopping experience. CONCLUSION It has been observed that, ICT has played a significant role in changing the marketing functions in the market. Many of the consulted sources such as internet sites, books, marketing thesis and journals, company marketers who were interviewed, made a reference to the changes which occurred in the community which automatically necessitated the dimension of the type of marketing marketers might use. The future trends of marketing include not only the economy but of communication with brandy of the products or service to measure result and brandy awareness. Traditional marketing takes a little more trust that the impact of your efforts is helping your bottom line. With Internet marketing you can see real facts and every detail that leads to reaching the goals and allows making decision based on facts while the traditional way may face some difficulties when required to show data that leads to achieving the goals. However, the best way to really know how effective your marketing approach is to see exactly what the audience is responding. Internet marketing allows studying every detail about the audience in real time. Although Internet Marketing is better at reaching the targeted audience, the traditional marketing is known for its reach to a mass audience. There are ways that traditional marketing can target certain demographics depending on a television channel or show, radio station genre or industry magazine. However, traditional marketing will never be able to target as precisely as Internet marketing. With Internet marketing one can target even the smallest audience based on a variety of things. Internet marketing provides better word-of-mouth as an effective marketing. The fact that social media allows people to build a community and let others spread positive feedback about the product or service. People will normally trust word-of-mouth much more than traditional ads that tries to convince you about the benefits of a product or service. These will emphasis on the tactics that are working and eliminate anything that is not effective. Traditional marketing develops a campaign and then hopes that it will work. This makes it difficult for traditional agencies to test new ideas or even look into all of the details to determine the effectiveness of a campaign. More companies are now moving away from traditional marketing towards Internet marketing. Companies are shifting money from traditional marketing to Internet marketing because Internet marketing is a more effective way to show proven results. Moreover, provision of valuable information to people creates a positive impression which helped in creating marketing. It also helps in reaching people who may not have any pre-existing interest or knowledge of your company. Despite the fact that education and sensitize on the advantages of ICT use in marketing is vital, the issues of internet security, privacy and international trading laws should also be emphasized. Despite the development of the internet; traditional marketing strategies are still proven to be highly effective when carried out in the right way. Nowadays are hundreds of other traditional marketing methods that people still use to market their business everyday and they do work, but due to the living standards we have today, response to these methods is quietly low.

Public Transport And Traffic In Penang Tourism Essay

Public Transport And Traffic In Penang Tourism Essay Chapter 1 Infrastructure is a broad concept linked to every facet of the economy and human life. Accordingly, the list of associated issues is long. For any purposeful analysis of issues in infrastructure development to lead to an action-oriented way forward, it is necessary to narrow down the definition of infrastructure and associated issues. The term infrastructure has been used since 1927 to refer collectively to the roads, bridges, rail lines and similar public works that are required for an industrial economy to function. Transportation, communication, sewage, water and electric systems are all a part of infrastructure. These systems tend to be high-cost investments. In general, infrastructure is location-specific and cannot be moved from place to place (www.unescap.org). Transportation infrastructure cannot operate without transportation and transportation cannot run without transportation infrastructure. Different transportations have their own infrastructure to support each other. For air transportation, their infrastructure will be the airport. Port will be the infrastructure for water transportation while infrastructure for land transportation such as public bus will be the bus terminal or bus stop. Transport infrastructure development in East and South-East Asia has played a key part in the phenomenal growth of world trade. The infrastructure backbone for international trade has been the container shipping network and increasingly the airfreight network. World container port traffic, which expanded by 9.2 per cent to 266 million TEUs in 2003, is dominated by Asian countries. They accounted for 46 per cent of container ship operations, 62 per cent of container port throughput, and 83 per cent of container ship building. Twelve major South and East Asian exporters together account for half of the worlds containerized exports (www.unescap.org). Bus terminal or known as bus station  is one of the most important transportation infrastructure where  buses  stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It may be intended as a  terminal or station  for a number of routes or as a transfer station where the routes continue. It is larger than bus stop where bus stop is usually built at the road side for the bus to stop for a while but not to wait for passengers. Tel Avivs new central bus station was officially inaugurated recently, after 26 years of off-and-on construction, legal and financial disputes (Encyclopedia.com). A majority of the Dan and Egged Tel Aviv-area buses are now based at the new station; 5,000 buses pass through the station daily, carrying some 150,000 passengers. The station is the largest bus station in the world, encompassing 197,600 square meters indoors, and 34,400 square meters outdoors (Encyclopedia.com). The largest underground bus station in Europe is  Kamppi Center  of  Helsinki,  Finland  completed in 2006. The terminal cost 100 million Euro to complete and took 3 years to design and build. Today, the bus terminal, which covers 25,000 square meters, is the busiest bus terminal in Finland. Every day, the terminal has around 700 bus departures, transporting some 170,000 passengers (www.webcitation.org). Since bus station play a vital role in strengthening the volume of traffic as well as in providing better services to the passenger, the bus service undertakings, specially in the public sector, should come up and encourage the emergence of the bus station management as an independent discipline in the field of traffic management. (Kulshrestha, 1993, p.9) Penang, as most of us may already know, is one of Malaysias most popular destinations for travelers coming from the local or the international communities (Talk Malaysia 2010). One of the main reasons for Penang to have so many travelers coming and going out annually is partly because there are a lot of interesting places to visit in Penang. Most of the interesting places in Penang are located at mainly around Georgetown and Seberang Perai (www.talkmalaysia.com). Therefore, transport infrastructure especially bus terminal or station in Georgetown play an important role in order to pick up and drop off passengers from a destination to another destination. This is because Penang has traffic problem, therefore public transport are used. Komtar Bus Terminal is the hub of bus services in George Town. All the bus routes of Penang radiates from this terminal. To be exact, Komtar Bus Terminal is not a terminal proper, but rather a bus station, because buses do not actually start from here, but rather, from the Weld Quay Bus Terminal. Nevertheless, most people will know it by that name. At the Komtar Bus Terminal, you can catch buses going to the north, central, south and west parts of Penang Island, as well as some buses that go to the mainland. Among the bus companies that use the terminal includes Rapid Penang, Milan, Transit Link and KGN-Hin. The terminal is located along Lebuh Tek Soon, although buses approach it via Jalan Ria and they emerge from the terminal into Jalan Ria once more (www.penang-traveltips.com). As a bus stop user, not satisfied with bus terminal in Georgetown. Some of the same complaint had been made by locals and tourists too. This is because they have the difficulties in determine which bus to ride in order to reach their destination. Therefore, this study is to find out what are the factors which make the tourists satisfied and not satisfied with the bus terminals in Penang. This study also includes, to identify the present condition of transport infrastructure, the cleanliness in the bus terminals and the safety and security in the bus terminals. From these factors, this study is able to conclude what are their expectations towards bus stop in order to let the government make improvement. 1.2 Statement of Problem Transport and traffic management have always been a bone of contention for Penang. Many feel that rapid economic development has not been met with an equal amount of attention given to proper traffic management and planning. There are about 1.4 million vehicles (motorcycles, cars and other vehicles) for a population of about 1.4 million people in Penang. This is about double the number of vehicles in 1999 (Sympologic, 2008). For the above reason, public transportation had played a very important role to reduce the traffic in Penang. But without a good infrastructure, public transportation will not be able to run smoothly. There are 2 main transport infrastructures for bus in Georgetown which are Komtar Bus Terminal and Weld Quay Bus Terminal. But, locals and tourists are not satisfied with the bus terminals in Georgetown. This is because there are no proper route information and bus timetable. It is difficult especially for tourists to identify which bus to ride in order to reach their destination. Tourists always have to ask the bus driver one by one to ask for the destination. This had slow down the traffic also. Besides, from the observation, the bus terminals are not well-maintained in term of cleanliness and safety. 1.3 Goal Objectives The goal of this research is to study tourists satisfactions and expectations towards bus terminals in Penang. In order to achieve the above goal, there are some objectives need to be done. To examine tourists satisfactions towards bus terminals To examine tourists expectations towards the bus terminals To examine the present condition of bus terminals To identify the cleanliness in the bus terminals To identify the safety and security in the bus terminals 1.4 Hypothesis From the objectives above, the below are the hypotheses which had concluded: Locals and tourists are not satisfied with the bus terminals. Locals and tourists have high expectations on the bus terminals in term of cleanliness and security. There is no proper route information or sign board in the bus terminals. The bus terminals are not clean. The bus terminals are not secure. The above hypotheses are made based on my own experiences and observation. Significance of the Study This research is able to let the government and private sector to make improvement on the bus terminals in order to let them become truly efficient. From the questionnaires which will be distribute and collected, they able to tell us the satisfaction level and expectation of locals and tourists towards the bus terminals. From their expectation, the improvement can be made. For example by putting up the route information and sign board, locals and tourists able to know which bus to ride to reach their destination. Besides, clean the bus terminals daily so that locals and tourists will feel comfortable and assign more security to secure the bus terminals. When the improvements have made, the locals and tourists will have the chance to use better bus terminals. All these will make the business of the bus increase too. 1.6 Scopes and Limitations of the Study The scopes for my research are Penangites and tourists in Penang. Penangites and tourists who are the user of bus terminals are targeted. 80% Penangites and 20% tourists are chosen to carry out this research. In order to complete this research, distribution of questionnaires will be made to these 2 groups of people mentioned above. Besides, observation in the bus terminals will be done by my own selves too. The bus terminals in Georgetown which would like to research on are Komtar Bus Terminal and Weld Quay Bus Terminal. These are the two popular bus terminals in Georgetown which crowded by people every day. This is because these are the two main stops which the bus will pick and drop passenger. There are also limitations for this research. The first limitation is resources. There is very few information on books, journals or articles about transportation infrastructure. The next limitation will be the time. Only 5 months to complete this research. Last but not least, the limitation is the manpower. I am the only one who doing this research. Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Transport and Tourism Page (2005) said that transport act as one of the important that contributed to the international development of tourism. According to Page (2007), the mode of transport can be one of the main motivations for the tourists to travel. He also said that in the growth of domestic and international tourism, transport is the most critical element in the promotion. He continued said that transport links the tourist from the origin area with the destination area. Therefore it enables the holidaymaker, business traveler and other categories of traveler to purchase the products and experience what they have purchased. He added that transport may be an attraction in its own right. Tourists who travel by road may use public transport or private transport to experience a variety of destinations. 2.2 Transport and Tourism in Penang, Malaysia A combination of East and West, Penang continues to grow in modernity but at the same time holding its traditions and old charm. Recently, because of the harmony of multiracial in Penang and the heritage buildings which are well preserved, these make the Georgetown being accorded a listing as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. Penang, long regarded as the food capital of Malaysia, it also attracts tourists with its beautiful beaches and delicious cuisines (www.tourismpenang.net.my). Transportation in Penang is convenient. You can travel in or out of Penang by the well-connected of road, rail, sea and air. Not only the air and train service is good in Penang but the seaways also offer good transportation. Ferry and seaports are there to create convenient to the people in Penang and Buttterworth. Penang ferry is provided by the Penang Ferry Service that connects George Town, Penang and Butterworth. There are four terminals, one on Penang Island (Swettenham Pier) and three on the mainland. Next, railway act as one of the transportation in Penang, but they are not popular due to their low speed. Besides, international flights are available in Penang International Airport which situated in the Bayan Lepas area of Penang, Malaysia (www.asiarooms.com). Goh (2010) said that traffic jams in Penang especially the major roads including Jalan Burma, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Jalan Jelutong and Jalan Mesjid Negeria re common although the population is small. Outside the city, jams are found even in Bayan Lepas and Telok Kimbar. He added that although the Jelutong Express Way had provided some relief to Jalan Jelutong and Jalan Mesjid Negeri, but the costs to Penangnites have yet to be calculated, although the highway is touted to be free. He suggested that Penang should follow the example of Crutiba. Crutiba is a city where the people rely on buses to avoid traffic jam. Recently, Rapid Penang buses are introduced for those who do not have car or have chosen not to use their cars. 2.2 Public Transportation Zegeer (2002) said that good public transportation is an important to the quality of a community as good roads. According Ramanathan and Parikh (1999, cited in Ramanathan, 2001; Banister and Berechman, 2001; Ramanathan and Parikh, 1999; Eisner, 1991), transport is a vital element for the modern society now and key to sustained economic growth. But, Ortuzar and Willumsen (2001) argued that the world of transport still face many problems of the past such as congestion, pollution, accidents, financial deficits and so on. They continued said that these problems will not get away until the traffic management improved. Figure 1 Car and Public-transport vicious circle Car and Public-transport vicious circle cited in Ortà ºzar, J.d.D., Willumsen, L.G., 2001, p. 8 They continue said that the transport problems have spread widely in both industrialized and developing countries. According to them, fuel shortages which are temporarily not a problem, but the increase in road traffic and transport demand has resulted in congestion, delays, accidents and environmental problems well beyond what has been considered acceptable so far. These problems have not been controlled to roads and car traffic alone. They added that economic growth seems to have generated levels of demand exceeding the capacity of most transport facilities. They continue argued that these problems are not likely to disappear in the near future. They suggested that it is necessary to ensure that a major effort in improving most forms of transport, in urban and inter-urban contexts. With respect to the quality of prices and services, transport services have been traditionally been subject to tight economic regulation with respect to entering and exciting the market. In many countries, road and rail networks and airport and port systems are traditionally designed, built, and operated by the public sector itself, which is the ultimate form of regulation. This type of government intervention has resulted in excessive costs that are not matched by prices or quality, therefore creating an outcome that reflects the interests of the sectors civil servants of contractors, unions, and other interests groups more than preferences of users and taxpayers (Estache and Rus, 2000). According to UITP (2004), government and public transport share a same goal to make sure the public transport is accessible to all especially the traffic environments have to be well-designed and managed to let the people to reach and use public transport safely and with confidence. UITP suggested that government and the public transport community to work together to reduce not only the physical but also the psychological barriers such as cognitive, information, fear and discrimination to travel safely in cities. UITP continues said that at any one time, an average of 25% of the population may have a degree of reduced mobility due to a physical or mental disability, impaired sight or hearing, or through having to carry heavy bags or travel with small children. UITP added, physical and sensory disabilities are often related to age and, as is well known, the proportion of the elderly population in western countries is growing and will continue to do so well into the 21st century. These are clear of the importance of improving accessibility to transport systems. According to UITP, benefits from improvements in transport accessibility are accrued not just to the disabled and ageing communities, but to all clients of the transport system. 2.3 Transport infrastructure Traditionally, building extra capacity has been addressed due to the blockages in transport infrastructure. But the possibility is small for the further expansion of infrastructure in many urban areas where the demand for transport is highest. Furthermore, a number of reports have found that the construction of new roads and airports to relieve congestion is ineffective because it only serves to induce new traffic. On the other hand, a study undertaken by a Norwegian research organization, the SINTEF Group claims that infrastructure capacity increases are directly linked to decreases in polluting emissions from motor vehicles. Using a traffic micro-simulation, it showed, for example, that upgrading narrow, winding roads or adding a lane to a congested motorway can yield decreases of up to 38% in CO2 emissions, 67% in CO emissions and 75% in NOx emissions, without generating substantially more car trips (EurActiv.com, 2008). According to Cà ¡rcamo-Dà ­az and Goddard (2007, cited in IADB, 2000), Infrastructure, defined as the set of engineering structures, equipment and facilities with a long-term, useful life employed by households and the different productive sectors of the economy, is essential for economic growth (cited in Easterly and Serven, 2003) and integration. As pointed out by IADB (2002), there is a positive relationship across countries between income levels and the quality of infrastructure. According to Tanzi (2005), the implicit assumption about the direction of causation goes from infrastructure to growth, although this issue is still debated in the literature. In many cases, the objective of transport infrastructure investment is to improve the accessibility of a given region by reducing travel time or increasing the potential to travel. Accessibility can be measured as the quantity of economic or social activities that can be reached using the transport labor, leading to increased competition and centralization. On the other hand, the impact for region concerned could be both positive and negative, depending on its initial level competitiveness (OECD, 2002). According to ITF and OECD (2008), there are some features of surface transport infrastructure that make its provision distinct from many other areas of the economy and which will likely have to be accounted for when different models are being considered. They claimed that transport system does not exist for their own sake but rather to serve other economic and social activity, this is because transport is a derived demand. This means that the possible wider implications of capacity shortages in, and overall standard of, the transport system, must be taken into consideration in the design if any model for providing transport infrastructure. 2.4 Transport Infrastructure in Different Countries 2.4.1 Luxembourg The pressure of congestion, excessive strain on transport infrastructure and environmental have led to a challenge due to a large and increasing number of commuters (OECD, 2008c). These pressures stem from both resident and cross-border commutes, which are broadly similar in number. High and increasing number of commutes among residents is reflected in Europes highest car ownership rate and one of the highest annual distances covered by automobile per capita. For cross-border commutes, 85% are made in passenger cars without use of public transport. These patterns lead to alarming levels of congestion on the main road transport corridors and there are now severe bottlenecks at the entrance to urban areas, notably in the city of Luxembourg. This results in wasted time, unsafe driving conditions, noise and high levels of emission and local air pollution (OECD, 2010). 2.4.2 France According to Willis (2010), the transport infrastructure in France is one of the most modernized to be found anywhere in Europe and this makes international freight movements streamlined and effective. In the area of modern tramways, France is a world leader in railway technology. Rail transport is therefore always a best option for shipping companies and freight forwarders operating in France. The transport network is built as a web, with Paris at the center. There is a total of nearly 32,000 kilometers of track in France, most of which is operated by the French railway company, SNCF. Over the last twenty years, a set of high speed LGV (lignes a grande vitesse) have been constructed to connect most parts of France with Paris. There are same gauge rail links to adjacent countries of Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden, as well as the Channel Tunnel link with the UK. The TGV, the French high speed train has broken world speed records is a sign of the way that France is a tr ue global leader in rail transport. For freight transport, rail is a model in France. 2.4.3 Germany According to Willis (2009), Germany has a transport infrastructure that is the envy of the world and this has helped enable the development of a highly effective freight services industry. The phrase Germanic is often used as a byword for efficiency and with good reason, if the freight services industry in Germany is seen as a measure. He continued said that when consider that it is less than twenty years since the Berlin Wall came down and East Germany started its process of integration within Germany, the efficiency of the transport network throughout the country is all the more remarkable. There is a very efficient network of waterways, railways and motorways that make internal connections fast and straightforward and also connect Germany with other countries throughout the world. 2.4.4 Middle East Timon Singh (2010) claimed that the Middle East and North Africa region has invested heavily in its transport infrastructure and for the likes of the UAE in particular over the past few years. He continued claimed that the money has gone into planes and trains in order to better improve between states, but to turn the region into both a business and tourist hub. Air traffic in the Middle East is the fastest growing in the world, and in order to cater for the increasing number of passengers at their various airports and thus improving their general transport infrastructure, the UAE has been implementing various aviation projects. According to him, rail is another part of the regions transport infrastructure that has gathered support in the Middle East from Dubais Metro System to plans for an expansive network connecting the GCC states. Qatar and Bahrain have one of the most ambitious projects, combining both rail and metro lines, which is set to transform the emirate into a major transport hub. The project, which is rumored to be costing over US$36.6 billion (QR133.5 billion) and estimated to take six years, is expected to be finished in phases over the next six years, with three major sections being the focus of the scheme the metro network within Greater Doha, the over-ground railways covering the whole of Qatar and then, linking it to the rest of the GCC region and cargo trains. 2.4.5 London, United Kingdom McDougall (2010) asked how do cities meet the needs of a growing population, promote diverse and healthy communities, improve the environment and tackle climate change. The answer is its a tall order and one that London is tackling head on with their aptly named London Plan. He said that the London Plan sets out to ensure that Londons transport is easy, safe and convenient and encourages cycling, walking and electric vehicles. The ambitious plan sets out the overall strategic direction for an integrated economic, environmental, transport and social framework for the development of London over the next 20-25 years. He continues said that the London Plan identifies what are termed Opportunity Areas in and around Londons major reservoirs of brown-field land. These areas are characterized by their potential to accommodate new housing, commercial and other development linked to existing or potential improvements to public transport accessibility. It is important to make sure that they can be developed without undue additional pressure on Londons already-crowded public transport, or on the limited funds available for anything beyond committed transport improvements. 2.4.6 India According to Pradhan (2010), transport is a key infrastructure in the present study, as causes energy consumption as well as economic growth in India. Therefore, he suggested that increasing transport facility along with energy consumption will lead to more economic growth in India. The achievement of higher economic growth through transport infrastructure and energy consumption could be due to its various direct and indirect benefits in the economy. But he claimed that the level of transport infrastructure is not so good, both in quantity and quality, in contrast to developed countries in the world. He suggested that if there is sufficient transport infrastructure in the economy, the result would be much better. He continued suggested that a suitable transport policy should be required urgently to boost economic growth and to maintain sustainable economic development in the country since transport infrastructure is a big deal to economic growth. 2.4.7 Malaysia The greatest advantage to manufacturers in Malaysia has been the nations persistent drive to develop and upgrade its infrastructure. Over the years, these investments have paid off and serious bottlenecks have been avoided. Today, Malaysia can boast of having one of the well-developed infrastructures among the newly industrializing countries of Asia (www.mida.gov.my). The latest development of Kuala Lumpur Sentral has become a futuristic self-contained city, providing the perfect live, work and play environment. A modern transportation hub integrating all major rail transport networks, including the Express Rail Link to the KLIA and Putrajaya, the governments new administrative center. Besides, the Peninsular Malaysias network of well-maintained highways is a gain to industries. These highways link major growth centers to seaports and airports throughout the peninsula and provide an efficient means of transportation for goods. (www.mida.gov.my). Malaysias central location in the Asia Pacific region makes her an ideal gateway to Asia. Air cargo facilities are well-developed in the five international airports the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Penang International Airport and Langkawi International Airport in Peninsular Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Sabah, and Kuching International Airport in Sarawak. Malaysias biggest airport, the KLIA, surrounded by four main cities of Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, Seremban and Melaka has a capacity of handling 25 million passengers and up to 8 million tons of cargo per year. Cargo import and export procedures are fully automated at the KLIA to cut down delivery time (www.mida.gov.my). Recently, Rapid Penang has introduced a state-of-the-art Intelligent Commuter Information System (ICIS), which provides real-time information on the arrival times of buses at terminals in Penang. The ICIS system, the first of its kind used by stage bus companies in the country, would enable some 75,000 commuters who use Rapid Penang buses daily to plan their journey more efficiently. It proved to be a success and has since been expanded for usage at the Komtar bus terminal, which sees the highest number of people boarding buses daily. A total of 200 buses operate from the Komtar bus terminal on a daily basis. The ICIS display system uses global positioning system (GPS) to map out the movement of all Rapid Penang buses and calculate the exact time of arrival of each bus at the Komtar bus terminal. The ICIS display system will later be extended to other strategic areas throughout the state including the possibility of having it installed in shopping complexes (newstraitstimes, 2010). 2.5 Bus Stop and Bus Terminal There are bus stops all over the Penang and there are three main bus terminals for buses in Penang, Malaysia. They are Weld Quay Terminal, Komtar Bus Terminal and Sungai Nibong Terminal. According to Zegeer (2002), a well-designed transit routes a reachable stops are essential to usable system. He continues said that bus stops should be located at intervals that are convenient for passengers for safety purpose and should be comfortable places for people to wait. UITP (2004 cited in Grenoble, 2004) argued that if the related infrastructure is inaccessible or inappropriately designed, much of the accessible vehicles will lost. Grenoble has carried out extensive research and development work to design tram and bus stops, starting some 20 years ago. The principle adopted by Grenoble was that the bus services should be made as accessible as the tram. According to Grenoble, the design standards found to be most effective for accessible bus stops were 14m(standard bus) and 20m(articulated bus) for overall length of bus boarding platform, 2.1m(minimum) and 2.6m(if a shelter is provided) for overall breadth of boarding platform, 3% for gradient of access ramp at end of platform, 21cm for height of boarding area, 60cm back from front edge of boarding area for safety line and 1.1m(minimum) and 1.3m(preferred) for clear space between front end of bus shelter and front edge of boarding area. Zegeer (2002) said that besides the bus stop signing, a bus shelter with seating, trash receptacles, and bicycle parking are also desirable features. He suggested that bus stops should be highly visible locations where pedestrian can reach them easily by means of accessible travel routes. Therefore, a complete sidewalks system is essential to support a public transportation system. Convenient crossings are also important. He continued suggested that proper placement of bus stops is key to user safety. For example, placing the bus stops on the near side of intersections or crosswalk may block pedestrians view of approaching traffic, and approaching drivers view of pedestrians. Approaching motorists may be unable to stop in time when a pedestrian steps from in front of a stopped bus into the traffic lanes at the intersection. Far-side bus stops generally encourage pedestrians to cross behind the bus. Reallocating the bus stop to the far side of the intersection can improve pedestrian safely since it climates the sight-distance restriction caused by the bus. Placing bus stops at the far aside of intersections can also improve motored vehicle operation. Besides, he also suggested that the bus stops should be fully accessible to pedestrians in wheelchairs, should have paved connections to sidewalks where landscape buffers exist, and should not block pedestrian travel on the sidewalk. Adequate room should exist to operate wheelchair lift. Yet, it is also useful to install curb ramps at bus stops so that a passenger can board from the street if bus-lift deployment is blocked. According to Iles (2005), problem may arise at bus stations which are used as intermediate stops for buses passing through the town or city when services are operated to schedule. Iles gave an example on when a full bus with a few passengers drop enter the station, they have the capacity to pick up same number