Social dance Essay Example for Free

Social dance Essay Dance does not leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings. It is not possible to say when dance became part of human culture. Dance has certainly been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment since before the birth of the earliest human civilizations. Archeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric times such as the 9,000 year old Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka paintings in India and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from circa 3300 BC. One of the earliest structured uses of dances may have been in the performance and in the telling of myths. It was also sometimes used to show feelings for one of the opposite gender. It is also linked to the origin of love making. Before the production of written languages, dance was one of the methods of passing these stories down from generation to generation. [2] Another early use of dance may have been as a precursor to ecstatic trance states in healing rituals. Dance is still used for this purpose by many cultures from the Brazilian rainforest to the Kalahari Desert. [3] Sri Lankan dances goes back to the mythological times of aboriginal yingyang twins and yakkas (devils). According to a Sinhalese legend, Kandyan dances originate, 250 years ago, from a magic ritual that broke the spell on a bewitched king. Many contemporary dance forms can be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dance. Partner Dancing in Art Dance at Bougival by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1882–83) Eadweard Muybridges phenakistoscope A Couple Waltzing (c. 1893) Dance classification and genres. Main articles: List of basic dance topics and List of dances Dance categories by number of interacting dancers are mainly solo dance, partner dance and group dance. Dance is performed for various purposes like ceremonial dance, erotic dance, performance dance, social dance etc. Dancing and music See also: Category:Music genres Many early forms of music and dance were created and performed together. This paired development has continued through the ages with dance/music forms such as: jig, waltz, tango, disco, salsa, electronica and hip-hop. Some musical genres also have a parallel dance form such as baroque music and baroque dance whereas others developed separately: classical music and classical ballet. Although dance is often accompanied by music, it can also be presented independently or provide its own accompaniment (tap dance). Dance presented with music may or may not be performed in time to the music depending on the style of dance. Dance performed without music is said to be danced to its own rhythm. Ballroom dancing is an art although it may incorporates many fitness components using an artistic state of mind. Saman Dance from Gayo people of Sumatra, Indonesia Morris dancing in the grounds of Wells Cathedral, Wells, England An amateur dancesport competition at MIT Professional dancers at the Tropicana Club, Havana, Cuba, in 2008 Dance studies and techniques See also: Dance theory, Choreography, and Dance moves In the early 1920s, dance studies (dance practice, critical theory, Musical analysis and history) began to be considered an academic discipline. Today these studies are an integral part of many universities arts and humanities programs. By the late 20th century the recognition of practical knowledge as equal to academic knowledge lead to the emergence of practice research and practice as research. A large range of dance courses are available including: Professional practice: performance and technical skills Practice research: choreography and performance Ethnochoreology, encompassing the dance-related aspects of anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, area studies, postcolonial theory, ethnography, etc. Dance therapy or dance-movement therapy. Dance and technology: new media and performance technologies. Laban Movement Analysis and somatic studies Academic degrees are available from BA (Hons) to PhD and other postdoctoral fellowships, with some dance scholars taking up their studies as mature students after a professional dance career. Dance competitions A dance competition is an organized event in which contestants perform dances before a judge or judges for awards and, in some cases, monetary prizes. There are several major types of dance competitions, distinguished primarily by the style or styles of dances performed. Major types of dance competitions include: Competitive dance, in which a variety of theater dance styles—such as acro, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, and tap—are permitted. Open competitions, which permit a wide variety of dance styles. A popular example of this is the TV program So You Think You Can Dance. Dancesport, which is focused exclusively on ballroom and latin dance. Popular examples of this are TV programs Dancing with the Stars and Strictly Come Dancing. Single-style competitions, such as highland dance, dance team, and Irish dance, which only permit a single dance style. Today, there are various dances and dance show competitions on Television and the Internet. Dance occupations There are different careers connected with dancing: Dancer, dance teacher, dance sport coach, dance therapist and choreographer. Dancer Dance training differs depending on the dance form. There are university programs and schools associated with professional dance companies for specialised training in classical dance (e. g.Ballet) and modern dance. There are also smaller, privately owned dance studios where students may train in a variety of dance forms including competitive dance forms (e. g. Latin dance, ballroom dance, etc. ) as well as ethnic/traditional dance forms. Professional dancers are usually employed on contract or for particular performances/productions. The professional life of a dancer is generally one of constantly changing work situations, strong competition pressure and low pay. Professional dancers often need to supplement their income, either in dance related roles (e.g. , dance teaching, dance sport coaches, yoga) or Pilates instruction to achieve financial stability. In the U. S. many professional dancers are members of unions such as the American Guild of Musical Artists, the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association. The unions help determine working conditions and minimum salaries for their members. Dance teachers Dance teacher and operators of dance schools rely on reputation and marketing. For dance forms without an association structure such as Salsa or Tango Argentino they may not have formal training. Most dance teachers are self employed. Dancesport coaches Dancesport coaches are tournament dancers or former dancesports people, and may be recognised by a dance sport federation. Choreographer Choreographers are generally university trained and are typically employed for particular projects or, more rarely may work on contract as the resident choreographer for a specific dance company. A choreographic work is protected intellectual property. Dancers may undertake their own choreography.

Autism And The Family Dynamic Social Work Essay

Autism And The Family Dynamic Social Work Essay In the public perception, the word autism conjures up an image of a person rocking back and forth, hands flapping in front of eyes that seem to focus in an unknown space a person remote from and disinterested in the social milieu. For many years, professional descriptions, definitions, and common assumptions about people with autism have reinforced that image and named the unusual ways of moving and acting as behaviors. Within the professional world that arranges and provides support for people with autism, the word behavior often became shorthand for bizarre, bad, repetitive, self-stimulatory, or useless ways of spending time. This paper is going to address the fundamental definition of Autism, Aspergers in particular, how the family functions, social support, and making meaning of adversity. It is important to begin with the fundamental definition of Autism since there are many slang terms in circulation such as retard, idiot, dumb, etc. that are used to describe an Autistic individual. It is important to clarify this. In the 1940s, researchers in the United States began to use the term autism to describe children with emotional or social problems. Leo Kanner, a doctor from Johns Hopkins University, used it to describe the withdrawn behavior of several children he studied. At about the same time, Hans Asperger, a scientist in Germany, identified a similar condition thats now called Aspergers syndrome.  [1]  One symptom common to all types of autism is an inability to easily communicate and interact with others. In fact, some people with autism are unable to communicate at all. Others may have difficulty interpreting body language or holding a conversation. Most children with severe autism are diagnosed by age three. Some children with milder forms of autism, such as Aspergers syndrome, may not be diagnosed until later, when their problems with social interaction cause difficulties at school as well as at home. In the article Accommodation, resistance and transcendence: three narrative of autism by David E. Gray he states that the effects of one childs autism on her family, however, went beyond the damage she caused to their home. Her problems also prevented the childs mother from obtaining employment outsider her home, and, consequently, the family was forced to live modestly on a government pension.  [2]  This excerpt from this article shows that autism does have an effect on the family dynamic, in this example a negative one. In fact, the description of autism is too often a teleological exercise with the same symptoms used to both describe and explain it. When one asks why the person displays autistic symptoms, one is told that he does it because he has autism, or because he does not have a theory of mind module, which is why he is autis tic, and his autism is why he does what he does.  [3]   Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that has received much attention in the popular press. Until recently how a family deals with autism was never a topic that doctors were concerned with. The autism diagnosis is a very dramatic diagnosis on a family and has a major effect on how they cope and function. Of course there are many stressors which impact families of children with autism which need to be addressed. It is important for families to understand the sources of stress and how to deal with those stressors so they are more readily available mentally and emotionally to help their children. In this research for this paper I have found five categories of stressors which have impacted families and therefore affects the family dynamic. These five stressors can be found in the article Stress and Coping in Autism. Transitional stress is considered the beginning stress. Transitional stressors are defined as those which come during times of change in family dynamics and roles.  [4]  Transitional issues related to diagnosis, entering school and leaving school may create confusion and conflict in families. Upon diagnosis typical reactions include shock, disbelief, denial and anger. While this diagnosis may confirm something the parents already suspected, in my personal situation it was a relief to finally put a name to something, it doesnt provide parents with any information about what the diagnosis means for their childs progress and development. This therefore puts a stress on the family dynamic. The second stressor that I came across in my research is the family functioning stress. This suggests that having a child or family member with autism can positively, negatively or neutrally impact family function.  [5]  According to this article there are eight main family functions: affection, self-esteem, spirituality, economics, daily care, socialization, recreation and education.  [6]  Stress can be caused by a family not being able to meet their need in one or more of these areas. The third stressor is emotional stress. Experiencing this first hand, following an autism diagnosis many parents and family members will experience grief feeling states. After the initial feelings of shock, it is said per the Stress and Coping in Autism article that families are expected to go through the natural stages of grief including denial, guilt, depression, anger and anxiety. The authors of the article then state that it is anticipated that these negative feeling will eventually give way to acceptance of the situation and family reorganization.  [7]  It is thought that parents experience the stages of grief upon diagnosis because their dreams and hopes for their child have been altered. In my personal experience this is true and therefore has an effect on the family dynamic. The next stressor or fourth one in this sequence is known as the caregiving stress. The added responsibilities for parents of children with a disability include ph ysical care, medical care, constant monitoring, managing problem behaviors, and other assistance.  [8]  These additional parenting responsibilities can drain a parents time and energy which can cause them to be susceptible to stress and anxiety. The childs constant dependency on the parent, along with the thought that the dependency may not lesson over time as would be expected with a typically developing child, can add to parental stress. The final and fifth category of stressors is the stress from negative professional and societal attitudes and assumptions. The impact of negative interactions with professionals and other members of society are many times seen as the most potent stressors on families.  [9]  Society has judgmental and stereotypical attitudes about family actions or lifestyles to the point that some jobs will not hire one of those types of people. Society also has displayed negative attitudes or animosity towards parents who strongly advocate for their child . Parents are the voice for their children not only so that they are treated fairly but that they have equal access to a normal life and education. These negative attitudes and assumptions from professionals can cause feelings of being criticized, devalued and alienated. Parents can also fall victim to negative attitudes and assumptions from family members, friends, and other members of their social support network. These people may not feel comfortable around individuals with disabilities or they might not know what to day to the parents to console them during difficult times. Usually if someone knows a child with autism they are more understanding than someone who does not. For example I advise a student with autism at my place of employment and I feel I connect with this student due to dealing with the needs of my own child. I feel that I am also an advocate for this student as well. His mother has told me that I am a breath of fresh air to her son because I treat him like a pers on first and a not his disability first. A child with autism does effect the family dynamic and it is important to surround the family with support and understanding as well as a plan of action to follow. The family system is an important part of the environment of the child and plays a central role in the developmental outcome of the child as well. Studies of families with a child with autism have traditionally examined this interaction by focusing on the effect parents have on the child, not the childs effect on the parents.  [10]  Social support and support strategies are very important to maintain and support the family dynamic. Families that seek out and access personal and professional support services are able to cope with stress better. There are many kinds of support services available to families including parent social support, professional formal support, and respite care. In the article, Family Functioning and Coping Behaviors in Parents of Children with Autism by Matthew J. Altiere, he talks about mothers of children with autism who perceives social support to be accessible report fewer stress related problems and depressed symptoms than do mothers who perceive less social support.  [11]  Parent social support includes the supports parents receive from friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers, or others. Many parents access these supports through parent support groups at which they can learn about a variety of topics and talk to other parents about their experiences raising a child with a disability. Parents can feel alone and hopeless. I belong to a social support group called ASGO (Autism Society of Greater Orlando). I too felt alone and this social group welcomed my family with open arms. Even though my husband and I were in various stages of the acceptance process we found others who accepted us. This connection helped give us hope in a time when we felt we were all alone. When a family is able to draw upon adequate resources and if they perceive the situation as manageable then the stress of raising a child with autism may never lead to a crisis. For example, the family gains support through interaction with family members and friends. On the other hand, they may withdraw from, or lack the time for, important social support activities. Thus, families with a child with autism may gradually lose their friends because of their limited availability. Realistically, social support is clearly important for families with a child with autism, although it can be difficult to find the time. There is also professional formal support which includes those services provided by community agencies and professionals. These supports can also include those services provided by a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist to guide parents and families in coping with the stressors in their lives. One major support professionals can provide is to teach parents the skills necessary to engage in effective problem solving. Effective and efficient problem solving skills can help alleviate a lot of stress for parents because they can become part of the solution when addressing issues surrounding their children.  [12]  Respite care is a service typically provided through state funded programs. Many individuals with disabilities qualify for services through these state funded programs and families are allotted a certain number of respite hours a month to be sued when the need them. Respite care is provided to relive parents of the parenting duties for a few hours, a weekend or several da ys. Best Buddies is one of these organizations. This service can be extremely valuable to families because it allows them the freedom to get away when needed with the peace of mind that their children are in qualified and competent hands. Social support is an important tool to a family with a child who has a disability. This can also assist with the family dynamic alleviating any stressors. Making meaning of adversity is very important to the family dynamic as well. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act recognized that parents are their childs best advocates and the law includes specific rights which serve to empower parents in this advocacy role. These rights include the guarantee of a free appropriate public education, mandatory notification by school personnel for proposed changes to the childs program, ability to initiate an evaluation at any time, requirement of informed parental consent for evaluations, power to obtain an independent educational evaluation, right to review all educational records, requirement that the school must fully inform parents of their rights, participation in the development of the IEP, requirement that children be educated in the least restrictive environment, and ability to request a due process hearing to resolve differences with the school. Parents are the most natural advocates for their children because they know the child best and because increased parental participation is correlated with increased child success. Additionally, parents are more effective at advocating for their child because they are emotionally invested in their childs welfare and they are the most constant people in the childs life. When parents are involved and advocate for the rights and meaningful education of their child amazing things can happen. There are a few key principles for effective advocacy: ask for what you want, be specific and detailed in your requests, stay flexible in finding solutions to concerns, keep requests clear and concise, look at issues from the perspective of others, build and preserve your creditability, never burn any bridges and follow up. If parents are able to do these things when addressing issues with school personnel or other community members/organizations a lot of positive change can and will happen. Adaptability also is an important part of making meaning out of adversity. Adaptability measures the familys ability to change in response to a stressful situation. Typically, the modern family believes that the father/husband is the head of the household and does not assist with household responsibilities or childcare. This places a larger burden than normal on the mother, and may result in her having little time for herself or for other members of the family. On the other end of the continuum are chaotic families, which are characterized by unstable and unpredictable change. In chaotic families, the rules may be constantly changing. There may not be a consistent leader and frequent role changes. One cannot dismiss the value of the ability to change with the appearance of sudden stressors, but this family style lacks the constancy needed when caring for a child with autism. Parents with children with disabilities differ significantly in their rating of the familys adaptability and cohesion. The mothers rated the families as more adaptable and cohesive. For mothers and fathers, greater parenting stress was associated with poorer family functioning. However, autism affects the family system differently than other childhood disorders. For example, studies that compare the stress in families with a child with autism to families of children with other disorders indicate that the families of children with autism experience more stress, depression, and anxiety.  [13]  The study in this article allows for the analysis of how autism affects the family system using the constructs of cohesion and adaptability. A goal of this study was to compare the perceptions of mothers and fathers on their coping mechanisms and the functioning of their family.  [14]  The high level of social support reported by mothers in this sample is encouraging because mothers of ch ildren with autism who perceive more social support experience less somatic problems and depressive symptoms. In contrast, many mothers indicated that their social support came from other mothers they met though support groups and related functions. During the past decade, a number of family researchers have been interested in finding why some families facing adversity manage to function well and come out stronger, while others when faced with a similar situation do not. Resilience has been described as the ability to withstand hardship and rebound from adversity, becoming more strengthened and resourceful. The concept of family resilience and its focus on factors leading to a familys well-functioning in view of a crisis is part of a movement in positive psychology towards identifying factors of health as opposed to factors of pathology.  [15]  Family resilience has been looked at either as an interaction of two groups of risk and protective factors. Although family resilience has not been directly studied in the disability field, there is increasing evidence that families of children with disabilities demonstrate a great degree of strength, articulating the positive contributions of disability to their familys life and well -being. Parents in the study reported stronger marriages, healthy family outcomes and acquisition of gained friendship networks with other families who had children with disabilities. My sons autism has made our family life tougher, emotionally and financially. Each member has to devote additional time and effort to help him, and learn how to live peacefully in such environment. Through working together, we all learned how to help my son tougher. In some sense, this also makes our family closer, because an individual cannot handle the toughness alone.  [16]  In other situations, working together led to more understanding and, possibly, stronger relationships between the members: My marriage is much stronger. We tend to fight less about little things because our focus is on our son. We realize the importance of staying together because our son benefits from both our strengths. We take care of ourselves through diet and exercise and plan evenings and dinners out every Saturday to get through the rough times. We cannot imagine life without our son. We are grateful to have him in our lives.  [17]   Some families found that autism in one of the children brought the siblings closer together, to the degree that some siblings sacrificed their personal freedom to care for their sibling with autism. For families to be able to work together and utilize their resources well, they must have had two other qualities: being flexible and communicating well with one another. These two qualities are necessary, because family members need to be flexible enough to accept necessary role and responsibility changes as a result of diagnosis of their child with a disability, and need to communicate with each other in order to successfully meet new demands on the family. A great number of families not only perceived them as close and untied, but also managed to adjust and function well over time. Within the last two decades, numerous individuals with autism have shared their unique experiences of living with autism resulting in a plethora of published first-hand accounts. Many professionals are seeking out and listening to these individuals to better understand this complex disorder. Individuals have been able to share their experiences through interviews, personal communication, and published accounts. These accounts come from individuals who can speak or type independently. In almost every first-hand account, individuals with autism report the experience of the stress of living in bodies that often do not work and move the way they want them to, resulting in extreme anxiety in their day-to-day lives. It is important to understand the family dynamic is impacted with a child who has a disability, in particular autism. Each family must take their own approach in regards to their individual needs in regards to what works for them. They also need to play into the roles of the household, for example if the father is the stay at home parent, he needs to use his role as a father to assist the child with a father attachment. Since the father is the primary care giver until the mother returns home from work, or whatever the situation might be. Each role needs to be embraced and when frustrations arise they need to be dealt with in a productive manner and not lead to unrest or divorce within the house hold. Honor Code: On my honor, I have not given or received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work. Heidi Soflkiancs-Shugg Electronically Signed 12/7/2012

alittle store :: essays research papers

Adam Smith had many views that helped in making the world what it is today. I can’t imagine what the world would be like if there weren’t thinkers like Adam Smith. Going to college would be pointless and trying to be something more than a cashier in a little store down the street would be pointless. What would we be working so hard for if we made the same amount of money as when we were sixteen working in that little store? He had many other views that were just as important but this was a big interest to me as probably to many others. Smith believed that a nation's wealth was not derived by how much they had in resources, or in exchangeable products, but rather by the labor that people put into making that product. "The annual labor of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences which it annually consumes." Smith stated that a nation could increase the efficiency of the potential of its people by increasing skill and proportion. Smith noted that the best way to increase the efficiency of labor is the division of labor. The division of labor is the central factor in Smith’s theory of economic growth. Division of labor is the splitting of a large task into smaller tasks and then having one person is responsible for only one or two of the smaller tasks, which leads to an increase in productivity and stimulates the entire growth cycle, which increases the efficiency of the whole task. The division of labor and the accumulation of capital are what Adam Smith believed to be the driving forces of economic growth in any nation. He found that when the division of labor had broken down the production into a series of simple operations it was more natural for tools and machinery to be invented that replace hand labor and made everything go faster. Then it increased worker productivity. This increased productivity and combined with the growing production so it increased output. This made more resources available to society to enjoy higher standards of living standard of living and products were not as scarce as they once were. Then Smith noticed that there was a huge rise in the â€Å"wealth of the nation†. Adam Smith stated that what a product is worth depends on the amount of labor that must be used to make that product.

Kidnapped :: Free Essays Online

Kidnapped Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751 was written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1850. As a child growing up Stevenson was extremely sick and suffered from severe respiratory ailments which continually interrupted his schooling. As he grew up his relationship with his parents became more and more difficult. His father expected Robert to follow the family profession and become an engineer. Stevenson agreed to study law but rarely attended classes and studied literature instead. Motivated by his love for adventure and need for a climate that suited his health needs Stevenson was continually traveling. In the 1870’s he traveled to France making money off of essays and travel books. There he met Fanny Osbourne, a married American he soon fell in love with. Stevenson followed Fanny to California to arrange for her divorce and soon after the newly married couple moved back to Europe During the 1880’s Stevenson wrote the novels that would make him famous. Treasure Island was the first book to set him off on his literary career in 1883. This book although written for a boys magazine is said to be more for an adult audience; that’s how most of Stevenson’s books are, filled with romantic adventure and a grim reality. In 1886, Stevenson wrote two novels, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one of his most famous works, and Kidnapped. Although received highly by the critics Kidnapped was overshadowed by Jekyll and Hyde in the public’s eye. Kidnapped is a story with fictional characters woven around true incidents. David Balfour is orphaned at nineteen and sent to his uncle to gain his inheritance. As he travels across the country to get to his uncle’s estate he learns that the people curse his name. When he gets to his uncle’s house instead of being greeted with a warm family welcome, his Uncle Ebenezer shuns him away. David refuses to leave and demands his inheritance and his uncle finally decides to take him in.

Heart Of Darkness :: essays research papers

Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad is a fictional novel with an overflow of symbolism. Throughout the entire novel Conrad uses a plethora of simple colors, objects, and places in order to clarify very complex meanings. By doing this, Conrad is able to lure the reader into a world unlike his or her own: the Congo River, located in central Africa. Although the interpretation of these symbols is so elaborate, the simplicity of each makes it somewhat easy to overlook. A few examples of the many symbols found in Conrad’s novel include the jungle, as well as the colors of white and black, better known as the colors of life and death. In Heart of Darkness, the images of black and white have the usual connotations of evil and good. These pigments are found throughout the entire book. Ironically, although black, the native Africans seem to represent a sort of good by doing what they feel is right. On the other hand, the white foreigners carry themselves with some kind of evil as they exploit the great kindness of the blacks. I guess you could say that the white men were filled with a black hatred inside. Another example is found when Marlow enters the Belgian company’s office. Sitting in the office are two women dressed almost completely in black. Marlow is no beginning to understand the seriousness of the journey he is going to make. Even his predecessor dies because of a quarrel over two black hens. The usage of black is almost too much to handle. Another example that I also remembered from the movie was how Kurtz’s pictures were always placed within a dark ebony back round. Another ironic example is the continued description of the white ivory. Its beautiful white shine makes it look righteous, even though it really demonstrates a great evil as the elephants were being destroyed along with other people. Other colors were of importance as well to truly understand the symbolic nature of the story. The plaid patches and trimmings on the Russian’s harlequin clothes portray his ever-changing moods and foolish, light-hearted behavior. By simply using a description of clothing, Conrad is able to show us how he tends to stay out of trouble with his befriending nature. The color yellow will usually symbolize some sort of corruption or decay. We first read about yellow as it marks the area of Congo on the map in the Brussels office.

MedNet: Confronts Click-Through Competition Essay

It was just 9:30 a.m., and the day was off to a terrible start. Heather Yates, vice president for business development at MedNet, walked at a quick clip down the hall of the company’s modern Birmingham, Alabama, office space, her face clouded with concern. The company, a website delivering health information free to consumers, generated its income through advertising, mostly from pharmaceutical companies. Now, Windham Pharmaceuticals, MedNet’s biggest advertiser, had asked to change the rules by which it had done business for the past four years. Moreover, Mahria Baker, Windham’s CMO, had told Yates that this wasn’t just an exploratory conversation. Windham was seriously considering shifting its MedNet ad dollars to Marvel, a competing website with which Windham already did some business. Yates, who had been with MedNet since just after the company was founded in 2002, felt blindsided and, at the same time, resigned. â€Å"We have some legwork to do,† she thought to herself. â€Å"We can’t afford to say ‘No,’ and just walk away, and we can’t just ask them to stay with us because we’re good people. We have to convince them that our set-up is worth their ad dollars. And we have to move quickly. Our other advertisers won’t be far behind Windham.† She had asked Baker to fax over a copy of the results of Windham’s latest advertising campaign, and had promised to call her back the next day, as both companies needed to finalize their budgets. Then, immediately after they had hung up, Yates had called Bill Bishop, MedNet’s vice president of consumer marketing. â€Å"Can you clear some time for me right now?† she had asked him. â€Å"Windham is thinking of pulling their ad dollars from us and taking them to Marvel.† Now she was on her way up to Bishop’s office, two floors above, with the fax from Baker and notes from her conversation in hand. Industry Background and Company Origins This case, though based on real events, is fictionalized, and any resemblance to actual persons or entities is coincidental. There are occasional references to actual companies in the narration. Copyright  © 2007 by Harvard Business School Publishing. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School Publishing million in profits. (See Exhibit 1 for 2006 income statement.) The accessibly written, easy-tonavigate, and vividly presented content was developed by 24 trained journalists, doctors, designers, and administrators. Additional materials came from the faculty of a prominent medical school, news agencies, a photography service, and an active community of visitors that used social media tools such as blogs, community chat, and virtual reality to communicate medical information. (Visitorgenerated media was reviewed by medically trained journalists.) The award-winning site was considered the best health website for trusted, evidence-based, consumer health information. Advertisements on MedNet proposed specific and immediate solutions to health concerns. MedNet had 4.3 million monthly visitors, but new competitors had flattened its audience growth during the last quarter of 2006. Competitors Now, in the first quarter of 2007, MedNet faced competition both for visitors and advertisers. Nonprofit and governmental websites competed with MedNet for visitors by providing similar content on mainstream medicine. The websites of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and World Health Organization weren’t nearly as easy to navigate as MedNet, but they were comprehensive. In contrast to MedNet, these two websites provided information on alternative therapies as well as on scientifically based solutions, albeit with with carefully worded disclaimers. What’s more, employees of large corporations could increasingly turn to customized health websites on their own company intranets. The theory was that if internal health websites could help workers quickly identify health problems (prompting overdue doctor visits) and promote general good health, the employers could reduce their portion of employee health care costs. For-profit health websites posed different degrees of financial competition for MedNet’s advertising revenue and audience. Recently, so-called condition-specific sites that focused on particular problems, such as Cholesterol.com, had emerged. (Yates was confident that Cholesterol.com was already drawing pharmaceutical advertising dollars away from MedNet.) An indirect competitor, ClinicalTrials.com, marketed only experimental procedures. Its audience was smaller than MedNet’s and the material was difficult for the layperson to understand. ClinicalTrials.com received a fee for each time a visitor it referred enrolled in a clinical trial. Then there was Alternativehealth.com, a long-time, popular player in the â€Å"health space.† It provided information about scientifically â€Å"unproven† therapies and procedures such as herbal remedies, vitamin regimens, and massage. Its audience was larger than MedNet’s and its advertising sales more robust. Due to a recent lawsuit concerning its content, Alternativehealth.com had begun using disclaimers—with no apparent impact on its audience size. Due to the alternative health consumer’s distrust of pharmaceutical companies, the website did not compete with MedNet for advertising dollars. Still, MedNet had to keep Alternativehealth on its radar. Methods Used to Calculate Advertiser Payment Yates’s thoughts raced through the company’s competitive landscape as she waited for the elevator. In her short phone conversation with Bill, he had told her to take a little time to review MedNet’s original value proposition to its advertisers. What they needed to do was re-justify their approach, if it was possible to do so. But, he had cautioned, they were compelled to keep an open mind. â€Å"Think through the facts,† Bill had said. â€Å"Why don’t you come up here in about half an hour. I’ll start to mull over our options as well.† Yates thought back to MedNet’s roots. Back in 2002, MedNet’s founders had made some key choices regarding revenue generation. MedNet could, in theory, sell content to site visitors, like an online magazine, charging a few dollars per article or an annual subscription fee. On the other hand, if the site could draw advertisers, and if advertising revenues were strong enough, the company could provide content free of charge—which is what most web users expected. An advertising revenue model was made possible by sophisticated web analytics: technology that tracked the behavior of each site visitor—pages viewed, links clicked, and so on. This software made it easy for advertisers to calculate their return on advertising investment (ROI). The obvious candidates to buy onscreen advertising space from MedNet were pharmaceutical companies, which for over a decade had promoted their drugs aggressively to consumers. As it happened, MedNet was launched at a time when many other consumer health care websites were going out of business, leaving pharmaceutical firms looking for web promotion outlets. MedNet seized the opportunity to build relationships with these advertisers. In deciding how best to generate revenue from advertisers, MedNet chose traditional banner advertising, charging pharmaceutical advertisers such as Windham Pharmaceuticals on a cost-perthousand impressions (CPM) basis. (One advertising impression meant that one visitor requested from a Web server a page that had a specific advertisement on it.) Measuring impressions was the closest way to estimate the number of people who actually saw an online advertisement. By pursuing an impression business model, MedNet was fully â€Å"monetizing† its available inventory of â€Å"eyeballs† (site visitors). An independent auditor verified the company’s impression counts each month. Marvel’s Challenge Yates reached Bill Bishop’s office and pushed the door open. Bill was on the phone, but he waved her to a seat. â€Å"Two minutes,† he mouthed at her. She nodded, and sat back. She thought about what she knew about Marvel. Marvel was essentially a large search engine that had decided to follow the alternative advertising model: contextual, or pay-per-click, banner advertising. Under these terms, advertisers paid website owners only when visitors actually â€Å"clicked† on an advertisement to learn more about an advertised product. The key metric to measuring this kind of online advertising campaign was the click-through rate (CTR), measured as the number of clicks divided by the number of ad impressions delivered. Advertisers considered website click-throughs (and telephone calls to a call center generated by a newspaper advertisement) to be the equivalent of customers interested in potentially making a purchase. Yates thought back to 2002. No sooner had MedNet’s founders opted for a pay-per-impression model than advertisers began resisting that pricing structure—but mainly from general-interest websites, where the majority of impressions came from visitors uninterested in their products. Advertisers based this perception in part on the percentage of click-throughs that ads yielded; the click-through rate on a general-interest site tended to be half as high as on highly focused â€Å"destination† content sites like MedNet. In 2006, MedNet.com therefore could still command a $100 CPM ($100 for each 1,000 impressions) contract from its advertisers—10 to 20 times what general interest websites might charge. Similarly, Alternativehealth.com’s advertisers paid for impressions only, and not for click-throughs. But Marvel, a hugely successful search engine, turned the table on its competition in the fall of 2006 by declaring it would provide impressions for free and charge advertisers only for clickthroughs. Because Marvel had a vast audience (19 million visitors per month), charging for even a   small percentage of click-throughs would pay off handsomely. If the site sold advertisements in enough categories, including the pharmaceutical market, Marvel could bring in huge revenues. By late 2006, some advertisers began to ask other sites to charge only for click-through â€Å"sales leads† like Marvel did. One drawback to this popular revenue model: reports of increasing â€Å"click frau d.† Advertisers’ competitors were fraudulently clicking on advertisements to drive up advertising costs. Not only was Marvel offering MedNet’s long-standing advertisers like Windham different financial terms, but it also competed for visitors interested in healthcare. Visitors often came to MedNet by way of a search engine such as Marvel, although such search engines served as a starting point of inquiry, not a serious source of trusted medical information. Mahria Baker’s challenge stuck with Yates: â€Å"At Marvel we get all our impressions for free, and we pay $0.54 for each click-through. At MedNet we pay for every impression, and by my calculation we pay $3.33 for each click-through. Granted, we’re not averse to getting impressions—anytime that anyone sees your logo, your slogan, and your product’s name, you are theoretically doing your brand some good. But here at Windham, click-throughs are really what matter. They separate accidental observers of our ads from the serious prospects who proactively seek more product information and may buy our product. I can’t justify paying six times as much for a click-through from one of your visitors.† Baker had paused a moment, then added, â€Å"Heather, help me here. Is there another way of looking at this that I’m missing?† â€Å"Yes, there is,† Yates had replied, â€Å"and if you let me call you back tomorrow I believe I can show you what you are missing.† MedNet’s Audience and Visitor Behavior Bill Bishop hung up the phone and turned to Yates. She spread out a copy of the results of Windham’s latest advertising campaign, and the two of them pored over it. (See Exhibit 2 for Baker’s data.) Many search engines and general-interest websites had large audiences that returned to the sites regularly, in a predictable pattern. By contrast, most visitors to targeted health websites such as MedNet came only when â€Å"in crisis.† However, when they did come, they stayed long and explored avidly, clicking around to clarify symptoms or determine the best course of action for a pressing health problem. They often researched unrelated symptom areas as well, in order to help family members, or out of curiosity. These visitors then returned during the next crisis, although some did become repeat visitors. MedNet visitors clicked on more pages and advertisements than generalinterest web surfers did (see Exhibit 3). In addition, health website visitors tended to buy more products from advertisers when they did decide to purchase. (See Exhibit 4 for a study of results and frequently viewed web pages on MedNet.) If the product advertised was not available over-thecounter, then the visitors would urge their physicians to prescribe the medication that they’d discovered in the advertisements on MedNet. Windham produced Vesselia, a prescription medication that reduced cholesterol and plaque in a patient’s veins with fewer side effects than competitors’ offerings. High cholesterol was one cause of heart disease, and it was attributed to both genetic predisposition and lifestyle choices. Keeping cholesterol low could be a long-term issue for many patients, requiring months, possibly years, of daily medication. Each patient who began a series of treatments would use the medicine for an average of 12 months. To encourage customers to request a prescription for Vesselia from their doctors, Windham provided coupons on its website that customers could print out and redeem at a pharmacy. For instance, when a customer clicked on a Windham ad at MedNet’s website, he was taken to the Windham website. Windham’s computer system could identify that the customer came from MedNet and insert that information into the Windham coupon bar code within fractions of a second. A different coupon code was provided to those web visitors who came to Windham from Marvel Search. (Coupons with yet another barcode were sent by postal mail by the Windham telephone call center to respondents to newspaper advertisements.) When patients redeemed the coupons at a pharmacy, the pharmacy returned them to Windham. Windham could thus attribute drug sales to the relevant advertising venue. On average, patients took three months to redeem coupons for Vesselia after Windham had first placed the advertisements. The current campaign would be considered closed at the end of February 2007.

Should the Government Regulate the Internet More Strictly

Tittle: Should the government regulate the Internet more strictly Should the government regulate the Internet more strictly? It is no exaggeration to say that the Internet has changed the world. Today, we can get all kinds of information from around the world through the Internet and life in the world easy to communicate with others. Therefore, the Internet seems to be at first glance dream tool. However, the Internet is not always a bright side. It can be harmful, when we use it and little care. Therefore, it should be better for the government to control the Internet.From my opinion, there are few ways here that government should regulate the internet more strictly. Firstly, the number of crimes on the Internet at breakneck speed is increase in the past few years. For example, we sometimes encounter some fraud when we do some shopping on the Internet. In this case, we are doing procurement and they do not sent to the buyer, although the money has been sent to the seller. This is ve ry difficult to track down criminals, because we have almost no criminals, who they are, what they do, even where they live we also don’t know.If we use the Internet for online shopping, our credit card number is stolen, then the money in our bank account may be used up. Using the Internet to do our personal information is not safe, especially those important document. In fact, when we surf the Web, reading e-mail, download software, even with our friends, is called a hidden program, Trojan chat, can send to our computer without our knowing. It will steal and transfer all the information that we already save. After that, this person may make use of it to others. Nguyen Long Quoc, 2008) Secondly, the Government should review the information on the Internet that is more stringent. In reality, we can find out a lot of illegal work, such as music, movies, or books on the Internet. Shall be strictly controlled, or who owns the copyright and intellectual property rights because of this serious damage. Between that, pornography is a drawback of the Internet also. This is a very serious problem, especially when it comes to children. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet can easily be found.This kind of site is very harmful to the child, and likely to incite them to take action, on the other sex. According to researchers Jennings Bryant about 600 junior high school aged men and women, 31% male and 18% of women admitted to actually do some things that they see pornography. In addition, a recent study shows that, often exposed to pornography may lead to children's participation in disease, addiction and unplanned pregnancy, the adverse effects of the mental life of children. (Nguyen Long Quoc, 2008) Lastly, we must be careful to computer viruses when we on the Internet.Some people do the purpose of computer viruses; they spread out on the Internet. Once these viruses infect our computers, they destroy some of the information or even the compute r itself. These kind of criminals also difficult to find out, so we must rely on government help to prevent these viruses. The virus is just a program; it would disrupt the normal operation of our computer system. Computer connected to the Internet is more vulnerable to virus attacks; they can go to our computer slowing down, destruction of data and our entire hard drive crashes to an end.Maybe we here at least, no matter how hard we tried to stop them to use some anti-virus program on infected computers from viruses. Therefore, we should clearly know that they cause bad damage, but also inevitable. In conclusion, the Internet can have some bad effects toward us, such as unsafe personal information, the impact of pornography on children's mental life, and virus threats. However, this does not mean that we should not use the Internet. It is difficult to imagine without the internet in our lives. We should only need to be more careful, every time we use the internet.Nowadays, although internet is good or convenient to us but we still have to beware of it because sometimes it will bring harms to us. There should be more government control of the Internet. Although the Internet has made that we might live a better life, it can be bad for us, unless it is properly controlled. SOURCES Grace Smith. (2007). More government control of the internet? Available: http://sky. geocities. jp/c1304015takeshi/C3_56. htm. Last accessed 17th July 2012. Nguyen Long Quoc. (2008). disadvantages of the Internet. Available: