Monday, April 27, 2020

Piet Mondrian Essay Example

Piet Mondrian Essay In 1872 a man named Piet Mondrian was born in Amersfoort, Netherlands. He grew up interested in painting and the surrounding environment. Following the standard painting style of the time, which was impressionism Mondrian, began painting.He studies at The Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts. He started off painting calm landscapes painted in grays, pinks, and dark greens.Soon Mondrian became influenced by a style known as cubism. Soon after that he started his own style. This style had a geometric style that he called neoplasticism. Mondrian soon moved to France in 1917 to study art and became the founder of a well know magazine called De Stijl which means The Style This magazine stated his thoughts and theories on his new art form called neoplasticism. He also published a book called The Neo-Plasticisme.With these he greatly influenced modern architecture.His paintings mostly are made up of vertical and horizontal lines at 90 degree angles in prime colors and black.He always painted on white or gray canvas.Modrian really carried abstraction to its limits.He said that art should express only universal absolutes which mean to paint only what is true.So therefore not many paintings of people where painted because it is said that he could not capture the soul of the models and got aggravated.Mondrians most famous painting as called Composition with red, yellow and blue. After living in France for many years Mondrian moved to New York in 1940 to escape the dangers of war.He began experimenting with a new type of art using chain link patterns with bright colors.When Mondrian moved his style became livelier. He stopped with the black lines. This can be seen in his last painting called Broadway Boogie Woogie.A man named Edouard Roditi said Everything in his life was reasoned or calculated. He was a compulsive neurotic and could never bear to see anything disordered or untidy. He seemed to suf

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Using the Law to Protect the Environment The WritePass Journal

Using the Law to Protect the Environment Introduction Using the Law to Protect the Environment IntroductionReferences.Related Introduction When defining the environment, Dimento (2003) states that it comprises of both natural and anthropogenic elements that are not only mutually interrelated, but has an impact on the ecological balance, life, human health, historical and cultural heritage and the landscape. From this definition, the environment comprises of three main things, the natural resources, the fauna and flora, and the properties which form part of the cultural heritage (Shelton Kiss 2005). The misuse of environmental resources and pollution worldwide has prompted commitment from governments and major stakeholders to put in place measures to protect the environment, and, consequently, environmental laws are being enacted in an effort to protect the environment (Dimento 2003). The environmental resources cannot be rejuvenated once depleted; neither can it protect itself from misuse and pollution. Therefore, only the law can be used to protect the environment. Putting in place laws in charge of the environment wi ll speak loudly about how the environment can be used sustainably as well as give prior warnings to those who may intend to misuse or pollute the environment. Laws usually give directions and consequences of going against such directions. Environment has its own rights and any violator of such rights will only be answerable to the law. According to UNEP, environmental law looks at the features of the protection programs which have been put in place to safeguard specific aspects of the environment and natural resources, such as water, air, waste and endangered species. It is also the reference point for judges presiding over environment related cases (Thirlway 2003). Before 1960, the environmental law did not exist as independently as other domestic or international legal issues (Shelton, Kiss Kanami 2003). However, international laws in place currently to help tackle the scientific issues which affect the environment, such as uncertainty issues, sustainable development, issues of diversity and settings issues of individuals and the society, and economics aspects of the environment (Fitzmaurice 2003). These laws seek to control the use of resources in a sustainable manner and to eradicate contamination of the environment through pollution and similar human practices. These laws, therefore, protects against loss of biodiversity, loss of fertility, desertification and famine, depletion of fishing resources, increase of cancers due to depletion of the ozone layer and damage of future generations (Zaelke, Kaniaru Kruzikova 2005). According to the United Nations (2003), sources of environmental laws can be classified into two categories: the National laws and the International laws. The basis of the legal mechanisms of the environmental law include prohibition and restriction of activities such as pollution, product and process standards, prior informed consent, environmental impact assessment, and land use regulation (Zaelke, Kaniaru Kruzikova 2005). Generally, these laws are formulated in such a way that they are preventive, that is, they prevent damage of the environment such that the use of some resources from the environment must be approved through rigorous exercises of environmental impact assessment and other similar regulations. This, in a broader perspective, helps in protecting the en vironment. Sanctions and penalties have also been put in place for those who fail to comply and this also helps in protecting the environment (Stanley, Johnson Gunther 1993). References. Dimento, J., (2003)., The Global Environment and International Law, .University Of Texas Press. Fitzmaurice, M., (2003)., The Practical Working of the Law of Treaties, In International law, Oxford University Press. Tarlock, D., History of Environmental law. Environmental law and their enforcement, Vol 1, eolss.net/Eolss-sampleAllChapter.aspx Thirlway, H., (2003)., The Sources of International Law, In International Law, Oxford University Press. (272) Shelton and Kiss., (2005)., Judicial handbook on Environmental law, UNEP, Hertfordsire, www.wcl.american.edu/environment/iel/two.cfm Shelton, Kiss and Kanami., (2003)., Economic Globalization and Compliance with International Environmental Agreements. New York:, Kluwer Law International, New York. Stanley, Johnson and Gunther., (1993)., Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Combating Desertification and Drought, The Earth Summit: The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) n.d United Nations., (2003),. Handbook of Final Clauses of Multilateral Treaties, http://untreaty.un.org/English/TreatyHandbook/hbframeset.htm United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Policy Development and Law (â€Å"Unep/Dpdl†) unep.org/DPDL/law/ Zaelke, Kaniaru and Kruzikova,. (2005),. Making Law Work, Environmental Compliance and Sustainable Development.,Cameroon.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your Goals

How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your Goals So you know how to write awesome blog posts. And you know how to increase your blog traffic. The next step, then, is to  define a blog schedule that will help you publish  those awesome blog posts super consistently to increase your: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions And all that, done in a way that helps you reach your goals. No sweat, right? How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your GoalsHere's exactly how you can do all of that with a blog schedule that really works: Begin By Defining  Your Blogging Goals Chances are, you're looking to create a blog schedule because you've heard publishing consistent content can help you grow your blog. It's true! Actually, folks who publish consistent content get as much as 30% more traffic for every post they publish, all while saving about an hour per post. And not only that, it makes your life a whole lot easier to look at a calendar full of blog post ideas instead of a blank slate and wondering, "What am I going to write today?" But- defining your blog schedule or even planning to publish more content isn't  your goal. Start first with a few measurements that'll help you focus your efforts on the right kinds of growth for your blog: Social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions are great goals to start with. Before  you even think about your optimal blog schedule, where would you like these numbers to be? I've seen first hand how social media shares influence all of these metrics in this order to grow customer conversions. 63% of 's blog traffic comes from social media, so you can see how all of these metrics are super important to us. These are good goals to have for your blog: ...Essentially, think of 10x growth. This mindset is what drives every decision we make at on how we use our time, and it's a good model for you, too! When you add something to your plate, ask yourself, "Will this help us drive 10x growth, or is this just a nice-to-have?" Takeaways: At this point, define goals for each of these metrics using the formula: social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions. If other measurements are more important to you, apply the formula to those to define your goals. It's possible that you're not looking for 10x growth for a certain goal (and maybe that is unachievable for certain measurements). Determine a figure for every goal that you will measure- just make sure there is really a number to which you will compare your results to understand how you're making an impact. Train Your Blogging Goals to Be... Well... SMART. Great goals are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and  time sensitive. You just figured out exactly what you'll measure, so at this point, just define your goals a bit further with a format like this: And you can do your own with a structure like this: Know How You Will Really Meet  Your Blog Schedule Chances are, you're one of the 70% of B2B marketers who plan to create more content this year. So, before you just jump in, let's get your resources figured out to make executing your blog schedule that much easier once you get going. 1. Roles You'll Need to Write Your Blog Posts: For blogging, there are only a handful roles  you need to fill: Writing Designing Publishing Promoting Recommended Reading: How to Set SMART Marketing Goals 2. People You'll Need to Fill Your Roles: That said, you  could probably get started with as few as  3 people: Author who writes the post. Designer who designs inline graphics. Editor who publishes and promotes the post. You only need three people to publish awesome content. #blogging3. Tools Your Team Will Need to Complete Their Roles: The second part of knowing your resources involves understanding what tools you'll use to create and manage your posts. For the minimum viable post that only includes text, graphics, and promotion, you may look at tools like: WordPress for the author to write the post. Photoshop  for the designer to design the post (or even a few free tools to design it yourself for you solo content creators out there). If you're low on budget but need a full-powered solution, GIMP is a free alternative  comparable to Photoshop. for the editor to manage the entire content creation process with  your author and designer, while publishing and promoting the post. Recommended Reading: How to Structure Your Content Marketing Team to Create Your Best Content 4. Time Commitment to Create Your Blog Posts: And the last part is understanding how much time each of these things takes to do. That will help you plan backward based on the amount of effort needed for your blog posts. Here are a few things to look into for that: Understand how long your average posts will be. That will  give you some indication for a time commitment from your author (maybe multiple). For example,  writing a 1,500-word post for the blog takes me about 4–5 hours with research, ideation, and actual writing. Estimate  how many graphics you'll include with every post. This may vary, but your designer  can probably estimate how much time she needs for every post, which will help her understand her commitment to the process. Know  exactly how you will promote your content so your editor can estimate his time commitment for social sharing, repurposing, syndication, and any other content distribution you're planning. Find your  people, tools, and time to know exactly how you'll execute your blog schedule.This knowledge will help you plan ahead far enough with your blog schedule to help your entire team have the time they need to create awesome content. It'll help you avoid rushing folks who actually may need a bit more time, while also helping everyone on the team understand when they should start executing their responsibilities. Takeaways: Figure out the names of everyone who will help you out. Meet with  those folks and their managers to agree on their time commitments and responsibilities. Know exactly what tools you need to be successful. Then get those tools in working order. Define a  task-based workflow  that will help your team complete their responsibilities on time once you get started with your blog schedule. Plan Your Blog Schedule Um, finally?! You could skip here, but if you don't know the goals you're trying to reach, and you have no one and no tools to help you get here, it's a little tricky to plan  your blog schedule! 1. Understand Your Optimal Publishing Frequency (What You'd Like  To Do) It's always helpful to understand your dream before you get started: How many posts would you like to publish every week? How about every month? That visualization is a great place to start just so you know how you'll ramp up your efforts. It's easy for the team to see  how much content you'd like to publish down the road. But for now- start with a minimal posting frequency to build your momentum. 2. Start Slow I've heard of folks starting their blog and publishing tons of content right off the bat: @njellering actually I did it the opposite way, started blogging more 3/4 per week and now working more on seo and distribution #cochat Cristina Hontanilla (@CHontanilla) May 7, 2015 What I fear for newbies starting that way, especially when working with a team new to blogging, is that there is tons of room for burnout by publishing too much content too quickly.  Instead, in the first months especially, focus on publishing enough content to work through the awkward newness of blogging, without overwhelming your team. Give your team time after every post in your first two months to walk through what went well, what you should do differently next time, and what you should stop doing entirely. After that, you could shift those meetings to once a month. Here's what a beginner's first six months' blog schedule could look like: At this point, you've worked though a ton of content with your team, and it's a good chance to measure your results to improve your content. 3. Measure the Success of Your First Posts You Published You know your goals. Quickly review how an average post contributes to your goals. Now that you've worked up a consistent blog schedule, that's as easy as looking at a week's (or possibly a month's) worth of measurements for your content and averaging the numbers. Plan time to measure the success of your posts. Use that knowledge to make quick improvements.Fill in the entire team on how you're doing. That way, everyone can figure out ways to improve their areas of responsibilities that will improve all of the content you publish (which  will also help you reach your goals). Recommended Reading: How to Make 2017 Super Organized With an Easy Content Calendar Template 4.  Calculate a Publishing Frequency to Reach Your Goals From the previous step, you've figured out how an average post contributes to your goals to increase: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions From here, use those figures to determine the amount of posts you'd need to publish in your blog schedule to reach your goals: 5. Is that Publishing Frequency Achievable? When you use this algorithm, some goals may require a lot more content than others. That's fine. It's just a tool to help you gauge how much content to publish to reach your goals. And keep in mind, this is only accurate if your posts don't get more traction, which they all certainly will as you increase your publishing frequency and  maintain consistency. A consistent blog schedule will help you grow your audience and get better  results from every post.Now it's time to take a hard look at your goals, the resources you have available to you to create content (specifically, the time involved from everyone on the team dedicated to creating your awesome content), and determine a super achievable publishing frequency. Here's what to look for: How much time does it take to write, design, publish, and promote a single  post? Is it possible for your team to scale to a happy medium amount of content publishing that either hits your goals or is really close? What could you quit doing to dedicate more time to creating awesome content? What improvements could you make in your content creation process to spend less time developing your  content? Finding efficiencies to publish content quicker will  help you scale- but be wary of the boogeyman saying, "Don't sacrifice quality for quantity." Don't sacrifice quality for quantity.6. Plan Content Improvements to Increase Success of Every Post Chances are, you're able to publish a decent amount of content that helps you nearly hit your goals. From here, some of the best ways to reach your goals are to improve every piece of content you publish. That way, every post delivers more results to your goals, which means you can get more results by publishing less content. Considering our major goals, here are a few quick wins to increase your efficiency with each: Social media shares. Write social media friendly content to help people want to share your content. Use social media buttons in your content in the best places to help people share your content. Plan a social media editorial calendar to boost your shares of your content to quadruple your traffic. Social media subscribers. Curate content to share with your subscribers to bring them the best of the best from your niche. Encourage readers to subscribe to your social accounts to get the latest and greatest from your blog. Include a way for readers to follow you when they sign up for emails (an easy automatic opt-in in their settings works well). Traffic. Publish really useful, helpful, educational, or entertaining content worthy of sharing. Optimize your posts for search engines to get long-term traffic. Share your content on social media more than once. Newsletter subscribers. Build an email list and community around your content. Be clear and honest with your opt-ins by telling your subscribers exactly what they'll get. Trade free content for email addresses. Customer conversions. Map out your customers' journey from a newbie to a veteran, and write content for all stages of the marketing funnel. Test different email  templates, subject lines, and more while including calls to action to convert. Ask readers to purchase what you're selling. You're providing helpful content with the goal to convert readers into buyers, so include calls to action in appropriate places throughout your content (without being overwhelmingly salesy). Recommended Reading: This is the Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts 7. Publish Your Optimal Blog Schedule For example, if you decide to boost your blog schedule to publish two posts a week, here is a game plan to increase your blog schedule publishing for your next 6 months: Note that the first two months involve finding the best times to publish your blog posts. That's something you'll do no matter if you're looking to publish two posts a week or more. Use  a content marketing editorial calendar template to map out your publishing frequency like this example. 8. Iterate and Try New Things This is the fun part: Execute your plan. You just planned  out an entire year blog schedule for your content! Measure your goals, improve your content, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Congrats on setting up your annual blog schedule! How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your Goals So you know how to write awesome blog posts. And you know how to increase your blog traffic. The next step, then, is to  define a blog schedule that will help you publish  those awesome blog posts super consistently to increase your: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions And all that, done in a way that helps you reach your goals. No sweat, right? How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your GoalsHere's exactly how you can do all of that with a blog schedule that really works: Begin By Defining  Your Blogging Goals Chances are, you're looking to create a blog schedule because you've heard publishing consistent content can help you grow your blog. It's true! Actually, folks who publish consistent content get as much as 30% more traffic for every post they publish, all while saving about an hour per post. And not only that, it makes your life a whole lot easier to look at a calendar full of blog post ideas instead of a blank slate and wondering, "What am I going to write today?" But- defining your blog schedule or even planning to publish more content isn't  your goal. Start first with a few measurements that'll help you focus your efforts on the right kinds of growth for your blog: Social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions are great goals to start with. Before  you even think about your optimal blog schedule, where would you like these numbers to be? I've seen first hand how social media shares influence all of these metrics in this order to grow customer conversions. 63% of 's blog traffic comes from social media, so you can see how all of these metrics are super important to us. These are good goals to have for your blog: ...Essentially, think of 10x growth. This mindset is what drives every decision we make at on how we use our time, and it's a good model for you, too! When you add something to your plate, ask yourself, "Will this help us drive 10x growth, or is this just a nice-to-have?" Takeaways: At this point, define goals for each of these metrics using the formula: social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions. If other measurements are more important to you, apply the formula to those to define your goals. It's possible that you're not looking for 10x growth for a certain goal (and maybe that is unachievable for certain measurements). Determine a figure for every goal that you will measure- just make sure there is really a number to which you will compare your results to understand how you're making an impact. Train Your Blogging Goals to Be... Well... SMART. Great goals are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and  time sensitive. You just figured out exactly what you'll measure, so at this point, just define your goals a bit further with a format like this: And you can do your own with a structure like this: Know How You Will Really Meet  Your Blog Schedule Chances are, you're one of the 70% of B2B marketers who plan to create more content this year. So, before you just jump in, let's get your resources figured out to make executing your blog schedule that much easier once you get going. 1. Roles You'll Need to Write Your Blog Posts: For blogging, there are only a handful roles  you need to fill: Writing Designing Publishing Promoting Recommended Reading: How to Set SMART Marketing Goals 2. People You'll Need to Fill Your Roles: That said, you  could probably get started with as few as  3 people: Author who writes the post. Designer who designs inline graphics. Editor who publishes and promotes the post. You only need three people to publish awesome content. #blogging3. Tools Your Team Will Need to Complete Their Roles: The second part of knowing your resources involves understanding what tools you'll use to create and manage your posts. For the minimum viable post that only includes text, graphics, and promotion, you may look at tools like: WordPress for the author to write the post. Photoshop  for the designer to design the post (or even a few free tools to design it yourself for you solo content creators out there). If you're low on budget but need a full-powered solution, GIMP is a free alternative  comparable to Photoshop. for the editor to manage the entire content creation process with  your author and designer, while publishing and promoting the post. Recommended Reading: How to Structure Your Content Marketing Team to Create Your Best Content 4. Time Commitment to Create Your Blog Posts: And the last part is understanding how much time each of these things takes to do. That will help you plan backward based on the amount of effort needed for your blog posts. Here are a few things to look into for that: Understand how long your average posts will be. That will  give you some indication for a time commitment from your author (maybe multiple). For example,  writing a 1,500-word post for the blog takes me about 4–5 hours with research, ideation, and actual writing. Estimate  how many graphics you'll include with every post. This may vary, but your designer  can probably estimate how much time she needs for every post, which will help her understand her commitment to the process. Know  exactly how you will promote your content so your editor can estimate his time commitment for social sharing, repurposing, syndication, and any other content distribution you're planning. Find your  people, tools, and time to know exactly how you'll execute your blog schedule.This knowledge will help you plan ahead far enough with your blog schedule to help your entire team have the time they need to create awesome content. It'll help you avoid rushing folks who actually may need a bit more time, while also helping everyone on the team understand when they should start executing their responsibilities. Takeaways: Figure out the names of everyone who will help you out. Meet with  those folks and their managers to agree on their time commitments and responsibilities. Know exactly what tools you need to be successful. Then get those tools in working order. Define a  task-based workflow  that will help your team complete their responsibilities on time once you get started with your blog schedule. Plan Your Blog Schedule Um, finally?! You could skip here, but if you don't know the goals you're trying to reach, and you have no one and no tools to help you get here, it's a little tricky to plan  your blog schedule! 1. Understand Your Optimal Publishing Frequency (What You'd Like  To Do) It's always helpful to understand your dream before you get started: How many posts would you like to publish every week? How about every month? That visualization is a great place to start just so you know how you'll ramp up your efforts. It's easy for the team to see  how much content you'd like to publish down the road. But for now- start with a minimal posting frequency to build your momentum. 2. Start Slow I've heard of folks starting their blog and publishing tons of content right off the bat: @njellering actually I did it the opposite way, started blogging more 3/4 per week and now working more on seo and distribution #cochat Cristina Hontanilla (@CHontanilla) May 7, 2015 What I fear for newbies starting that way, especially when working with a team new to blogging, is that there is tons of room for burnout by publishing too much content too quickly.  Instead, in the first months especially, focus on publishing enough content to work through the awkward newness of blogging, without overwhelming your team. Give your team time after every post in your first two months to walk through what went well, what you should do differently next time, and what you should stop doing entirely. After that, you could shift those meetings to once a month. Here's what a beginner's first six months' blog schedule could look like: At this point, you've worked though a ton of content with your team, and it's a good chance to measure your results to improve your content. 3. Measure the Success of Your First Posts You Published You know your goals. Quickly review how an average post contributes to your goals. Now that you've worked up a consistent blog schedule, that's as easy as looking at a week's (or possibly a month's) worth of measurements for your content and averaging the numbers. Plan time to measure the success of your posts. Use that knowledge to make quick improvements.Fill in the entire team on how you're doing. That way, everyone can figure out ways to improve their areas of responsibilities that will improve all of the content you publish (which  will also help you reach your goals). Recommended Reading: How to Make 2017 Super Organized With an Easy Content Calendar Template 4.  Calculate a Publishing Frequency to Reach Your Goals From the previous step, you've figured out how an average post contributes to your goals to increase: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions From here, use those figures to determine the amount of posts you'd need to publish in your blog schedule to reach your goals: 5. Is that Publishing Frequency Achievable? When you use this algorithm, some goals may require a lot more content than others. That's fine. It's just a tool to help you gauge how much content to publish to reach your goals. And keep in mind, this is only accurate if your posts don't get more traction, which they all certainly will as you increase your publishing frequency and  maintain consistency. A consistent blog schedule will help you grow your audience and get better  results from every post.Now it's time to take a hard look at your goals, the resources you have available to you to create content (specifically, the time involved from everyone on the team dedicated to creating your awesome content), and determine a super achievable publishing frequency. Here's what to look for: How much time does it take to write, design, publish, and promote a single  post? Is it possible for your team to scale to a happy medium amount of content publishing that either hits your goals or is really close? What could you quit doing to dedicate more time to creating awesome content? What improvements could you make in your content creation process to spend less time developing your  content? Finding efficiencies to publish content quicker will  help you scale- but be wary of the boogeyman saying, "Don't sacrifice quality for quantity." Don't sacrifice quality for quantity.6. Plan Content Improvements to Increase Success of Every Post Chances are, you're able to publish a decent amount of content that helps you nearly hit your goals. From here, some of the best ways to reach your goals are to improve every piece of content you publish. That way, every post delivers more results to your goals, which means you can get more results by publishing less content. Considering our major goals, here are a few quick wins to increase your efficiency with each: Social media shares. Write social media friendly content to help people want to share your content. Use social media buttons in your content in the best places to help people share your content. Plan a social media editorial calendar to boost your shares of your content to quadruple your traffic. Social media subscribers. Curate content to share with your subscribers to bring them the best of the best from your niche. Encourage readers to subscribe to your social accounts to get the latest and greatest from your blog. Include a way for readers to follow you when they sign up for emails (an easy automatic opt-in in their settings works well). Traffic. Publish really useful, helpful, educational, or entertaining content worthy of sharing. Optimize your posts for search engines to get long-term traffic. Share your content on social media more than once. Newsletter subscribers. Build an email list and community around your content. Be clear and honest with your opt-ins by telling your subscribers exactly what they'll get. Trade free content for email addresses. Customer conversions. Map out your customers' journey from a newbie to a veteran, and write content for all stages of the marketing funnel. Test different email  templates, subject lines, and more while including calls to action to convert. Ask readers to purchase what you're selling. You're providing helpful content with the goal to convert readers into buyers, so include calls to action in appropriate places throughout your content (without being overwhelmingly salesy). Recommended Reading: This is the Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts 7. Publish Your Optimal Blog Schedule For example, if you decide to boost your blog schedule to publish two posts a week, here is a game plan to increase your blog schedule publishing for your next 6 months: Note that the first two months involve finding the best times to publish your blog posts. That's something you'll do no matter if you're looking to publish two posts a week or more. Use  a content marketing editorial calendar template to map out your publishing frequency like this example. 8. Iterate and Try New Things This is the fun part: Execute your plan. You just planned  out an entire year blog schedule for your content! Measure your goals, improve your content, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Congrats on setting up your annual blog schedule! How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your Goals So you know how to write awesome blog posts. And you know how to increase your blog traffic. The next step, then, is to  define a blog schedule that will help you publish  those awesome blog posts super consistently to increase your: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions And all that, done in a way that helps you reach your goals. No sweat, right? How To Plan A Blog Schedule That Will Crush Your GoalsHere's exactly how you can do all of that with a blog schedule that really works: Begin By Defining  Your Blogging Goals Chances are, you're looking to create a blog schedule because you've heard publishing consistent content can help you grow your blog. It's true! Actually, folks who publish consistent content get as much as 30% more traffic for every post they publish, all while saving about an hour per post. And not only that, it makes your life a whole lot easier to look at a calendar full of blog post ideas instead of a blank slate and wondering, "What am I going to write today?" But- defining your blog schedule or even planning to publish more content isn't  your goal. Start first with a few measurements that'll help you focus your efforts on the right kinds of growth for your blog: Social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions are great goals to start with. Before  you even think about your optimal blog schedule, where would you like these numbers to be? I've seen first hand how social media shares influence all of these metrics in this order to grow customer conversions. 63% of 's blog traffic comes from social media, so you can see how all of these metrics are super important to us. These are good goals to have for your blog: ...Essentially, think of 10x growth. This mindset is what drives every decision we make at on how we use our time, and it's a good model for you, too! When you add something to your plate, ask yourself, "Will this help us drive 10x growth, or is this just a nice-to-have?" Takeaways: At this point, define goals for each of these metrics using the formula: social media shares, social media subscribers, traffic, newsletter subscribers, and customer conversions. If other measurements are more important to you, apply the formula to those to define your goals. It's possible that you're not looking for 10x growth for a certain goal (and maybe that is unachievable for certain measurements). Determine a figure for every goal that you will measure- just make sure there is really a number to which you will compare your results to understand how you're making an impact. Train Your Blogging Goals to Be... Well... SMART. Great goals are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and  time sensitive. You just figured out exactly what you'll measure, so at this point, just define your goals a bit further with a format like this: And you can do your own with a structure like this: Know How You Will Really Meet  Your Blog Schedule Chances are, you're one of the 70% of B2B marketers who plan to create more content this year. So, before you just jump in, let's get your resources figured out to make executing your blog schedule that much easier once you get going. 1. Roles You'll Need to Write Your Blog Posts: For blogging, there are only a handful roles  you need to fill: Writing Designing Publishing Promoting Recommended Reading: How to Set SMART Marketing Goals 2. People You'll Need to Fill Your Roles: That said, you  could probably get started with as few as  3 people: Author who writes the post. Designer who designs inline graphics. Editor who publishes and promotes the post. You only need three people to publish awesome content. #blogging3. Tools Your Team Will Need to Complete Their Roles: The second part of knowing your resources involves understanding what tools you'll use to create and manage your posts. For the minimum viable post that only includes text, graphics, and promotion, you may look at tools like: WordPress for the author to write the post. Photoshop  for the designer to design the post (or even a few free tools to design it yourself for you solo content creators out there). If you're low on budget but need a full-powered solution, GIMP is a free alternative  comparable to Photoshop. for the editor to manage the entire content creation process with  your author and designer, while publishing and promoting the post. Recommended Reading: How to Structure Your Content Marketing Team to Create Your Best Content 4. Time Commitment to Create Your Blog Posts: And the last part is understanding how much time each of these things takes to do. That will help you plan backward based on the amount of effort needed for your blog posts. Here are a few things to look into for that: Understand how long your average posts will be. That will  give you some indication for a time commitment from your author (maybe multiple). For example,  writing a 1,500-word post for the blog takes me about 4–5 hours with research, ideation, and actual writing. Estimate  how many graphics you'll include with every post. This may vary, but your designer  can probably estimate how much time she needs for every post, which will help her understand her commitment to the process. Know  exactly how you will promote your content so your editor can estimate his time commitment for social sharing, repurposing, syndication, and any other content distribution you're planning. Find your  people, tools, and time to know exactly how you'll execute your blog schedule.This knowledge will help you plan ahead far enough with your blog schedule to help your entire team have the time they need to create awesome content. It'll help you avoid rushing folks who actually may need a bit more time, while also helping everyone on the team understand when they should start executing their responsibilities. Takeaways: Figure out the names of everyone who will help you out. Meet with  those folks and their managers to agree on their time commitments and responsibilities. Know exactly what tools you need to be successful. Then get those tools in working order. Define a  task-based workflow  that will help your team complete their responsibilities on time once you get started with your blog schedule. Plan Your Blog Schedule Um, finally?! You could skip here, but if you don't know the goals you're trying to reach, and you have no one and no tools to help you get here, it's a little tricky to plan  your blog schedule! 1. Understand Your Optimal Publishing Frequency (What You'd Like  To Do) It's always helpful to understand your dream before you get started: How many posts would you like to publish every week? How about every month? That visualization is a great place to start just so you know how you'll ramp up your efforts. It's easy for the team to see  how much content you'd like to publish down the road. But for now- start with a minimal posting frequency to build your momentum. 2. Start Slow I've heard of folks starting their blog and publishing tons of content right off the bat: @njellering actually I did it the opposite way, started blogging more 3/4 per week and now working more on seo and distribution #cochat Cristina Hontanilla (@CHontanilla) May 7, 2015 What I fear for newbies starting that way, especially when working with a team new to blogging, is that there is tons of room for burnout by publishing too much content too quickly.  Instead, in the first months especially, focus on publishing enough content to work through the awkward newness of blogging, without overwhelming your team. Give your team time after every post in your first two months to walk through what went well, what you should do differently next time, and what you should stop doing entirely. After that, you could shift those meetings to once a month. Here's what a beginner's first six months' blog schedule could look like: At this point, you've worked though a ton of content with your team, and it's a good chance to measure your results to improve your content. 3. Measure the Success of Your First Posts You Published You know your goals. Quickly review how an average post contributes to your goals. Now that you've worked up a consistent blog schedule, that's as easy as looking at a week's (or possibly a month's) worth of measurements for your content and averaging the numbers. Plan time to measure the success of your posts. Use that knowledge to make quick improvements.Fill in the entire team on how you're doing. That way, everyone can figure out ways to improve their areas of responsibilities that will improve all of the content you publish (which  will also help you reach your goals). Recommended Reading: How to Make 2017 Super Organized With an Easy Content Calendar Template 4.  Calculate a Publishing Frequency to Reach Your Goals From the previous step, you've figured out how an average post contributes to your goals to increase: Social media shares Social media subscribers Traffic Newsletter subscribers Customer conversions From here, use those figures to determine the amount of posts you'd need to publish in your blog schedule to reach your goals: 5. Is that Publishing Frequency Achievable? When you use this algorithm, some goals may require a lot more content than others. That's fine. It's just a tool to help you gauge how much content to publish to reach your goals. And keep in mind, this is only accurate if your posts don't get more traction, which they all certainly will as you increase your publishing frequency and  maintain consistency. A consistent blog schedule will help you grow your audience and get better  results from every post.Now it's time to take a hard look at your goals, the resources you have available to you to create content (specifically, the time involved from everyone on the team dedicated to creating your awesome content), and determine a super achievable publishing frequency. Here's what to look for: How much time does it take to write, design, publish, and promote a single  post? Is it possible for your team to scale to a happy medium amount of content publishing that either hits your goals or is really close? What could you quit doing to dedicate more time to creating awesome content? What improvements could you make in your content creation process to spend less time developing your  content? Finding efficiencies to publish content quicker will  help you scale- but be wary of the boogeyman saying, "Don't sacrifice quality for quantity." Don't sacrifice quality for quantity.6. Plan Content Improvements to Increase Success of Every Post Chances are, you're able to publish a decent amount of content that helps you nearly hit your goals. From here, some of the best ways to reach your goals are to improve every piece of content you publish. That way, every post delivers more results to your goals, which means you can get more results by publishing less content. Considering our major goals, here are a few quick wins to increase your efficiency with each: Social media shares. Write social media friendly content to help people want to share your content. Use social media buttons in your content in the best places to help people share your content. Plan a social media editorial calendar to boost your shares of your content to quadruple your traffic. Social media subscribers. Curate content to share with your subscribers to bring them the best of the best from your niche. Encourage readers to subscribe to your social accounts to get the latest and greatest from your blog. Include a way for readers to follow you when they sign up for emails (an easy automatic opt-in in their settings works well). Traffic. Publish really useful, helpful, educational, or entertaining content worthy of sharing. Optimize your posts for search engines to get long-term traffic. Share your content on social media more than once. Newsletter subscribers. Build an email list and community around your content. Be clear and honest with your opt-ins by telling your subscribers exactly what they'll get. Trade free content for email addresses. Customer conversions. Map out your customers' journey from a newbie to a veteran, and write content for all stages of the marketing funnel. Test different email  templates, subject lines, and more while including calls to action to convert. Ask readers to purchase what you're selling. You're providing helpful content with the goal to convert readers into buyers, so include calls to action in appropriate places throughout your content (without being overwhelmingly salesy). Recommended Reading: This is the Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts 7. Publish Your Optimal Blog Schedule For example, if you decide to boost your blog schedule to publish two posts a week, here is a game plan to increase your blog schedule publishing for your next 6 months: Note that the first two months involve finding the best times to publish your blog posts. That's something you'll do no matter if you're looking to publish two posts a week or more. Use  a content marketing editorial calendar template to map out your publishing frequency like this example. 8. Iterate and Try New Things This is the fun part: Execute your plan. You just planned  out an entire year blog schedule for your content! Measure your goals, improve your content, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Congrats on setting up your annual blog schedule!

Sunday, February 16, 2020

David Dabydeens Rewriting of Turners Painting Essay

David Dabydeens Rewriting of Turners Painting - Essay Example st enjoys the self-acclaimed freedom of distorting the reality in order to work out another reality that is greater and that lies beyond the capability of plain eyesight. J. M. Turner’s (who was an abolitionist) primary purpose was to draw the viewers’ sympathy for the slaves. But either because the limitation of visual art or simply because he is not one of the slaved society, he has failed to delve deep into the core of a slave’s existence that is his cultural identity. But Dabydeen has to focus primarily on this particular but relative truth or meaning of the art, rather than simply rewriting it, while overcoming Turner’s limitation. Yet since a visual art is often subjected to multiple interpretations depending on the multiplicities of individuals’ viewpoints, throughout the whole rewriting the painting Dabydeen has to maintain a poetic abstraction of the visual imagery of the his poem. Indeed, for Dabydeen Turner’s art is not more than an objective reality, of the 19th Century, and a part of history that he interprets from his own viewpoint. Hence what Dabydeen deals more with the reality of Turner’s art is his subjective interpolation that evokes picture and imagination of a civilization out of an instantaneous portrayal of a singular reality that might have evaded Turner’s eye, that is, J. M. Turner as well as his society fails to perceive the cultural identity of the slaves. Dabydeen has tried to evoke a cult ural identity out of the forgotten past. Dabydeen views that the slave thrown into the sea is floating for â€Å"centuries†, and his memory of his origin has faded away, though not completely.

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Dq 7 m9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dq 7 m9 - Essay Example As such, the modern concepts that involve ethics in organizations encompass related issues to the triple bottom line, fair-trade, corporate responsibility amongst others (Savitz & Weber, 2006). Business, non-profit, and governmental organizations have often been mentioning sustainability in their goals. However, measuring the extent under which business advocates for sustainable growth, or is being sustainable is quite difficult. In mid 1990s, Elkington had to determine sustainability by trying to encompass new frameworks that measure the performance in Corporate America. The accounting outlines triumphs beyond the traditional measures of profits and return on investments. It also achieves shareholder’s value to incorporate the social and environmental dimensions. The framework is the Triple Bottom Line. Therefore, in focusing on the all-inclusive investment results, in which case, it includes the performance in the scope of people, profit and the planet, the Triple Bottom Lin e reports becomes the vital tool that supports sustainability goals. It has had to enable the business and nonprofit organizations to adopt Triple Bottom Line sustainability framework to enhance evaluation of their performance. Such similar approaches have had the gain of currency with the governments at all levels (Elkington, 1997). The concept that the triple bottom line demonstrates is that companies or organizations are responsible for all their stakeholders, in which case it should be by balancing the responsibilities of the organization. This might involve all that is part of the company whether indirectly or directly, and the planet in which a human being lives. This approach of TBL observes the shareholders as part of the shareholder group, however, in only a part of it. If I would conduct a cost/benefit analysis with respect to continuing to support the TBL, then I will come to draw some conclusions. One measures the accomplishment of the business in provisions of the econo mic performance. If the business generates some sufficient returns of finance, including from investments, operating activities and financial activities, then the business becomes successful. The triple bottom line has had to take some criteria that assess the performance of the organizations, the economic, social, and environmental. By using the traditional method, and by basing the stakeholders approach, one measures the inflow and the outflow of resources from the business, in which case it includes cash and the finances, the liabilities, the assets and even the simplest definable business resources. This economic criterion will then determine the extent an organization generates in monetary value. It determines also the net worth of business at some point in time, which is a significant benefit to the organization. Measuring the social performance of the organization will be quite the difficult criteria. This criterion of the triple bottom line involves the taking into account t he influence of business on the people outside the business and those within the business. The principles of the triple bottom line on a business will play the role of benefiting the community and will ensure there is no exploitation of the people by the action of the business. Societal factors measured include the

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Fully Connected Mesh Topology Information Technology Essay

Fully Connected Mesh Topology Information Technology Essay These five labels describe how the devices in a network are interconnected rather than their physical arrangement. For example, having a star topology does not mean that all of the computers in the network must be placed physically around a hub in a star shape. A consideration when choosing a topology is the relative status of the devices be linked. Two relationships are possible: peer-to-peer, where the devices share the link equally, and primary-secondary, where one device controls traffic and the others must transmit through it. Ring and mesh topologies are more convenient for peer-to-peer transmission, while star and tree are more convenient for primary-secondary, bus topology is equally convenient for either. Mesh In a mesh topology, every device has a dedicated point-to-point link to every other device. The term dedicated means that the link carries traffic only between the two devices it connects. A fully connected mesh network therefore has n*(n l)/2 physical channels to link n devices. To accommodate that many links, every device on the network must have 7 input/output (I/O) ports. tifsTmp9.tif Figure (9) Fully Connected Mesh Topology A mesh offers several advantages over other network topologies. First, the use of dedicated links guarantees that each connection can carry its own data load, thus eliminating the traffic problems that can occur when links must be shared by multiple devices. Second, a mesh topology is robust. If one link becomes unusable, it does not incapacitate the entire system. Another advantage is privacy or security. When every message sent travels along dedicated line, only the intended recipient sees it. Physical boundaries prevent other users from gaining access to messages. Finally, point-to-point links make fault identification and fault isolation easy. Traffic can be routed to avoid links with suspected problems. This facility enables the network manager to discover the precise location of the fault and aids in finding its cause and solution. The main disadvantages of a mesh are related to the amount of cabling and the number of I/O ports required. First, because every device must be connected to ever other device, installation and reconfiguration are difficult. Second, the sheer bulk of the wiring can be greater than the available space (in walls, ceilings, or floors) can accommodate. And, finally, the hardware required connecting each link (I/O ports and cable can be prohibitively expensive). For these reasons a mesh topology is usually implemented in a limited fashionà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬for example, as a backbone connecting the main computers of a hybrid network that can include several other topologies. Star In a star topology, each device has a dedicated point-to-point link only to a central controller, usually called a hub. The devices are not directly linked to each other. Unlike a mesh topology, a star topology does not allow direct traffic between devices. The controller acts as an exchange. If one device wants to send data to another, it sends the data to the controller, which then relays the data to the other connected device. HubtifsTmp10.tif Figure (10) Star topology A star topology is less expensive than a mesh topology. In a star, each device needs only one link and one I/O port to connect it to any number of others. This factor also makes it easy to install and reconfigure. Far less cabling needs to be housed, and additions, moves, and deletions involve only one connection: between that device and the hub. Other advantages include robustness. If one link fails, only that link is affected. All other links remain active. This factor also lends itself to easy fault identification and fault isolation. As long as the hub is working, it can be used to monitor link problems and bypass defective links. However, although a star requires far less cable than a mesh, each node must be linked to a central hub. For this reason more cabling is required in a star than in some other topologies (such as tree, ring, or bus). Tree A tree topology is a variation of a star. As in a star, nodes in a tree are linked to a central hub that controls the traffic to the network. However, not every device plugs directly into the central hub. The majority of devices connect to a secondary hub that in turn is connected to the central hub. The central hub in the tree is an active hub. An active hub contains a repeater, which is a hardware device that regenerates the received bit patterns before sending them out. Repeating strengthens trans- missions and increases the distance a signal can travel. tifsTmp11.tif Figure (11) Tree Topology The secondary hubs may be active or passive hubs. A passive hub provides a simple physical connection between the attached devices. The advantages and disadvantages of a tree topology are generally the same as those of a star. The addition of secondary hubs, however, brings two further advantages. First, it allows more devices to be attached to a single central hub and can therefore increase the distance a signal can travel between devices. Second, it allows the network to isolate and prioritize communications from different computers. For example, the computers attached to one secondary hub can be given priority over computers attached to another secondary hub. In this way, the network designers and operator can guarantee that time-sensitive data will not have to wait for access to the network. A good example of tree topology can be seen in cable TV technology where the main cable from the main office is divided into main branches and each branch is divided into smaller branches and so on. The hubs are used when a cable is divided. Bus The preceding examples all describe point-to-point configurations. A bus topology, on the other hand, is multipoint. One long cable acts as a backbone to link all the devices in the network. Nodes are connected to the bus cable by drop lines and taps. A drop line is a connection running between the device and the main cable. A tap is a connector that either splices into the main cable or punctures the sheathing of a cable to create a contact with the metallic core. As a signal travels along the backbone, some of its energy is transformed into heat. Therefore, it becomes weaker and weaker the farther it has to travel. For this reason there is a limit on the number of taps a bus can support and on the distance between those taps. Advantages of a bus topology include ease of installation. Backbone cable can be laid along the most efficient path, then connected to the nodes by drop lines of various lengths. In this way, a bus uses less cabling than mesh, star, or tree topologies. In a star, for example, four network devices in the same room require four lengths of cable reaching all the way to the hub. In a bus, this redundancy is eliminated. Only the backbone cable stretches through the entire facility. Each drop line has to reach only as far as the nearest point on the backbone. tifsTmp12.tif Figure (12) Bus Topology Disadvantages include difficult reconfiguration and fault isolation. A bus is usually designed to be optimally efficient at installation. It can therefore be difficult to add new devices. As mentioned above, signal reflection at the taps can cause degradation in quality. This degradation can be controlled by limiting the number and spacing of devices connected to a given length of cable. Adding new devices may therefore require modification or replacement of the backbone. In addition, a fault or break in the bus cable stops all transmission, even between devices on the same side of the problem. The damaged area reflects signals back in the direction of origin, creating noise in both directions. Ring In a ring topology, each device has a dedicated point-to-point line configuration only with the two devices on either side of it. A signal is passed along the ring in one direction, from device to device, until it reaches its destination. Each device in the ring incorporates a repeater. When a device receives a signal intended for another device, its repeater regenerates the bits and passes them along. A ring is relatively easy to install and reconfigure. Each device is linked only to its immediate neighbors (either physically or logically). To add or delete a device requires moving only two connections. The only constraints are media and traffic considerations (maximum ring length and number of devices). In addition, fault isolation is simplified. Generally in a ring, a signal is circulating at all times. If one device does not receive a signal within a specified period, it can issue an alarm. The alarm alerts the network operator to the problem and its location. However, unidirectional traffic can be a disadvantage. In a simple ring, a break in the ring (such as a disabled station) can disable the entire network. This weakness can be solved by using a dual ring or a switch capable of closing off the break. tifsTemp 13.a.tif Figure (13) Ring Topology OSI Model This model is based on a proposal developed by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as a first step toward international standardization of the protocols used in the various layers. The model is called the ISO-OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Reference Model because it deals with connecting open systemsà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬that is, systems that are open for communication with other systems. We will usually just call it the OSI model for short. The OSI model has seven layers. The principles that were applied to arrive at the seven layers are as follows 1. A layer should be created where a different level of abstraction is needed. 2. Each layer should perform a well-defined function. 3. The function of each layer should be chosen with an eye toward defining internationally standardized protocols. 4. The layer boundaries should be chosen to minimize the information flow across the interfaces. 5. The number of layers should be large enough that distinct functions need not be thrown together in the same layer out of necessity, and small enough that the architecture does not become unwieldy. Below we will discuss each layer of the model in turn, starting at the bottom layer. Note that the OSI model itself is not network architecture because it does not specify the exact services and protocols to be used in each layer. It just tells what each layer should do. However, ISO has also produced standards for all the layers, although these are not part of the reference model itself. Each one has been published as a separate international standard. tifsTmp2-a.tif Figure (16) The OSI Reference Model The Physical Layer The physical layer is concerned with transmitting raw bits over a communication channel. The design issues have to do with making sure that when one side sends a 1 bit, it is received by the other side as a 1 bit, not as a 0 bit. Typical questions here are how many volts should be used to represent a 1 and how many for a 0, how many microseconds a bit lasts, whether transmission may proceed simultaneously in both directions, how the initial connection is established and how it is torn down when both sides are finished, and how many pins the network connector has and what each pin is used for. The design issues here largely deal with mechanical, electrical, and procedural interfaces, and the physical transmission medium, which lies below the physical layer. The Data Link Layer The main task of the data link layer is to take a raw transmission facility and transform it into a line that appears free of undetected transmission errors to the network layer. It accomplishes this task by having the sender break the input data up into data frames (typically a few hundred or a few thousand bytes), transmit the frames sequentially, and process the acknowledgement frames sent back by the receiver. Since the physical layer merely accepts and transmits a stream of bits without any regard to meaning or structure, it is up to the data link layer to create and recognize frame boundaries. This can be accomplished by attaching special bit patterns to the beginning and end of the frame. If these bit patterns can accidentally occur in the data, special care must be taken to make sure these patterns are not incorrectly interpreted as frame delimiters. A noise burst on the line can destroy a frame completely. In this case, the data link layer software on the source machine can retransmit the frame. However, multiple transmissions of the same frame introduce the possibility of duplicate frames. A duplicate frame could be sent if the acknowledgement frame from the receiver back to the sender were lost. It is up to this layer to solve the problems caused by damaged, lost, and duplicate frames. The data link layer may offer several different service classes to the network layer, each of a different quality and with a different price. Another issue that arises in the data link layer (and most of the higher layers is well) is how to keep a fast transmitter from drowning a slow receiver in data. Some traffic regulation mechanism must be employed to let the transmitter know how much buffer space the receiver has at the moment. Frequently, this flow regulation and the error handling are integrated. If the line can be used to transmit data in both directions, this introduces a new complication that the data link layer software must deal with. The problem is that the acknowledgement frames for A to B traffic compete for the use of the line with data frames for the B to A traffic. Broadcast networks have an additional issue in the data link layer to control access to the shared channel. A special, sub layer of the data link layer, the medium access sub layer, deals with this problem. The Network Layer The network layer is concerned with controlling the operation of the subnet. A key design issue is determining how packets are routed from source to destination. Routes can be based on static tables that are wired into the network and rarely changed. They can also be determined at the start of each conversation, for example a terminal session. Finally, they can be highly dynamic, being determined anew for each packet, to reflect the current network load. If too many packets are present in the subnet at the same time, they will get in each others way, forming bottlenecks. The control of such congestion also belongs to the network layer. Since the operators of the subnet may well expect remuneration for their efforts, there is often some accounting function built into the network layer. At the very least, the software must count how many packets or each customer sends characters or bits, to produce billing information. When a packet crosses a national border, with different rates on each side, the accounting can become complicated. When a packet has to travel from one network to another to get to its destination, many problems can arise. The addressing used by the second network may be different from the first one. The second one may not accept the packet at all because it is too large. The protocols may differ, and so on. It is up to the network layer to overcome all these problems to allow heterogeneous networks to be interconnected. In broadcast networks, the routing problem is simple, so the network layer is often thin or even nonexistent. The Transport Layer The basic function of the transport layer is to accept data from the session layer, split it up into smaller units if need be, pass these to the network layer, and ensure that the pieces all arrive correctly at the other end. Furthermore, all this must be done efficiently, and in a way that isolates the upper layers from the inevitable changes in the hardware technology. Under normal conditions, the transport layer creates a distinct network connection for each transport connection required by the session layer. If the transport connection requires a high throughput, however, the transport layer might create multiple network connections, dividing the data among the network connections to improve throughput. On the other hand, if creating or maintaining a network connection is expensive, the transport layer might multiplex several transport connections onto the same network connection to reduce the cost. In all cases, the transport layer is required to make the multiplexing transparent to the session layer. The transport layer also determines what type of service to provide the session layer, and ultimately, the users of the network. The most popular type of transport connection is an error-free point-to-point channel that delivers messages or bytes in the order in which they were sent. However, other possible kinds of transport service are transport of isolated messages with no guarantee about the order of delivery, and broadcasting of messages to multiple destinations. The type of service is determined when the connection is established. The transport layer is a true end-to-end layer, from source to destination, in other words, a program on the source machine carries on a conversation with a similar program on the destination machine, using the message headers and control messages. In the lower layers, the protocols are between each machine and its immediate neighbors, and not by the ultimate source and destination machines, which may be separated by many routers. There is a difference between layers 1 through 3, which are chained, and layers 4 through 7, which are end-to-end. Many hosts are multi-programmed, which implies that multiple connections will be entering and leaving each host. Their needs to be some way to tell which message belong to which connection. The transport header is one place this information can be put. In addition to multiplexing several message streams onto one channel, the transport layer must take care of establishing and deleting connections across the network. This requires some kind of naming mechanism, so that a process on one machine has a way of describing with whom it wishes to converse. There must also be a mechanism to regulate the flow of information, so that a fast host cannot overrun a slow one. Such a mechanism is called flow control and plays a key role in the transport layer (also in other layers). Flow control between hosts is distinct from flow control between routers, although we will later see that similar principles apply to both. The Session Layer The session layer allows users on different machines to establish sessions between them. A session allows ordinary data transport, as does the transport layer, but it also provides enhanced services useful in some applications. A session might be used to allow a user to log into a remote timesharing system or to transfer a file between two machines. One of the services of the session layer is to manage dialogue control. Sessions can allow traffic to go in both directions at the same time, or in only one direction at a time. If traffic can only go one way at a time (analogous to a single railroad track), the session layer can help keep track of whose turn it is. A related session service is token management. For some protocols, it is essential that both sides do not attempt the same operation at the same time. To manage these activities, the session layer provides tokens that can be exchanged. Only the side holding the token may perform the critical operation. Another session service is synchronization. Consider the problems that might occur when trying to do a 2-hour file transfer between two machines with a 1-hour mean time between crashes. After each transfer was aborted, the whole transfer would have to start over again and would probably fail again the next time as well. To eliminate this problem, the session layer provides a way to insert checkpoints into the data stream, so that after a crash, only the data transferred after the last checkpoint have to be repeated. The Presentation Layer The presentation layer performs certain functions that are requested sufficiently often to warrant finding a general solution for them, rather than letting each user solve the problems. In particular, unlike all the lower layers, which are just interested in moving bits reliably from here to there, the presentation layer is concerned with the syntax and semantics of the information transmitted. A typical example of a presentation service is encoding data in a standard agreed upon way. Most user programs do not exchange random binary bit strings. They exchange things such as peoples names, dates, amounts of money, and invoices. These items are represented as character strings, integers, floating-point numbers, and data structures composed of several simpler items. Different computers have different codes for representing character strings, integers, and so on. In order to make it possible for computers with different representations to communicate, the data structures to be exchanged can be defined in an abstract way, along with a standard encoding to be used on the wire. The presentation layer manages these abstract data structures and converts from the representation used inside the computer to the network standard representation and back. The Application Layer The application layer contains a variety of protocols that are commonly needed. For example, there are hundreds of incompatible terminal types in the world. Consider, the plight of a full screen editor that is supposed to work over a network with many different terminal types, each with different screen layouts, escape sequences for inserting and deleting text, involving the cursor, etc. One way to solve this problem is to define an abstract network virtual terminal that editors and other programs can be written to deal with. To handle each terminal type, a piece of software must be written to map the functions of the network virtual terminal onto the real terminal. For example, when the editor moves the virtual terminals cursor to the upper left-hand corner of the screen, this software must issue the proper command sequence to the real terminal to get its cursor there too. All the virtual terminal software is in the application layer. Another application layer function is file transfer. Different file systems have different file naming conventions, different ways of representing text lines, and so on. Transferring a file between two different systems requires handling these and other incompatibilities. This work, too, belongs to the application layer, as do electronic mail, remote job entry, directory lookup, and various other general purpose and special-purpose facilities.

Friday, January 17, 2020

IQ Testing and Group Intelligence Testing

In defining intelligence, there has always been the question of whether intelligence is measured as a remarkable occurrence or if it has many variables that are combined. For example, is it how â€Å"smart† a person is? Or is it their ability to perform well on standardized tests? Are they measuring a person†s intelligence? Or just some arbitrary quantity of the person†s IQ? Or is it a mixture of survival, mathematical, social and other abilities. There are many debates regarding whether measuring intelligence is determined from test scores and results, or if it is measured by the person†s ability to process and problem solve. Uses of intelligence testing in an educational setting, intelligence and achievement tests are administered routinely to assess individual accomplishment. They are used to improve instruction a! nd curriculum planning. High schools use these tests to assist in the students future educational planning and help decide what college or type of college to attend. Elementary schools utilize screening and testing procedures to help determine readiness for writing and reading placement. Intelligence can be measured, by intelligence tests, among them the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Scale. These tests are intended to determine an individual†s intelligence quotient (IQ). Intelligence tests usually provide an estimate of global cognitive functioning as well as information about functioning within more specific domains. Intelligence tests are quite stable compared to measures of other human traits. However, the degree of stability increases with age such that early childhood and preschool measures of intellectual function are far less predictive of later functioning than assessments taken during middle childhood. The stability of intelligence test scores may! change as a function due to important environmental factors. Therefore, intelligence test scores are descriptive of a child†s functioning at that point in time when taking a test. The test scores could also be effected by environmental factors, child†s psychiatric status or educational program. Components of a good intelligence test are (a) Validity; does the test really measure intelligence and not something else? (b) Reliability; does the test produce consistent measures? (c) Norms; are the participants being fairly compared? Components that make an intelligence test flawed are (a) Poor validity; tests may be sensitive to social factors. (b) Poor norms; comparing people who are different. (c) Poor application; tests measure something that the school or job has nothing to do with. Theories of Process Psychometric Model Psychometric approach is defined as psychology that deals with the design, administration, and interpretation of quantitative tests ! for the measurement of psychological variables such as intelligence, aptitude, and personality traits. There are various psychometric approaches to intelligence. The following paragraphs describe three different theorists and their psychometric model. First is Charles Spearman, who believed that intelligence is a combination of two parts. According to his two-factory theory of intelligence, the performance of any intellectual act requires some combination of g, (general intelligence factor) which is available to the same individual to the same degree for all intellectual acts. (Specific factors) or s is specific to that act and varies in strength from one act to another. S is specific knowledge such as verbal reasoning or spatial problem solving. Spearman equated g with mental energy. If one knows how a person performs on one task that is highly saturated with g, one can safely predict a similar level of performance for another highly g saturated task. The prediction of perfor! mance on tasks with high s factors is less accurate. Thus, the most important information to have about a person†s intellectual ability is an estimate of their g or mental energy (Plucker 1989). Guilford†s theory includes 150 abilities, arranged in three dimensions; contents, operations, and products. Guilford†s three-dimensional Structure of Intellect classified intellectual acts into 120 separate categories. These categories are operations dimension, products dimension and material or content dimension. He developed firm convictions regarding the ability of individual difference among people. Guilford believed that intelligence is much too complicated to be subsumed by a few primary mental abilities and g factor. His systematic theory gave rise to what is known as informational-operational psychology. Information-Processing Informational theorists believe human cognition is best understood as the management of information through a system with limit!ed space or resources (Bukato and Daehler 1998). Thurstone†s theory is based on seven primary mental abilities. In the area of intelligence, his theory maintains that intelligence is made up of several primary mental abilities rather than just the g and s factors. He was among the first to purpose and demonstrate that there are numerous ways in which a person can be intelligent. Thurstone†s Multiple-Factors Theory identified these seven primary mental abilities; Verbal Comprehension, Associative Memory, Word Fluency, Number Facility, Reasoning, Spatial Visualization, and Perceptual Speed. Thurstone†s theory has been used to construct intelligence tests that yield a profile of the individual†s performance on each of the ability tests, rather than general that yield a single score such as an IQ. Two theorists that promote informational processing models are Sternberg and Gardner. Sternberg†s triarchic theory consists of three parts; cognitive components of intelligence, experien! They are divided into three major sub-theories: Componential is encoding, combining and comparing stimuli, and evaluating one own performance. Contextual is the adaptation to one†s environment. One of Sternberg†s most important contributions to intelligence theory has been the redefinition of intelligence to incorporate practical knowledge. As Sternberg insists, â€Å"real life is where intelligence operates† and not in the classroom†¦The true measure of success is not how well one does in school, but how well one does in life (Trosky, 1998)†