Innovation and Knowledge Essay -- History, Marx, Schumpeter, Kondratie

For centuries now the subject of innovation has given ground for much discussion and debate. In its wider context economic historians and sociologists have theorised and argued its contribution to economic growth and society in general, nevertheless, many have termed innovation as the ‘engine of growth.’ Therefore, to appreciate the extent of benefit that innovation can offer business this introduction begins with some of these theories. Famous names such as, Karl Marx, Joseph Schumpeter, and Nicolai Kondratieff respectively, which are seen by many as experts in their field have all, in their own manner, cited innovation and technological progress as the stimulus for economic growth. However, it was Marx who first realised that economic growth could be associated to innovation, and innovations and entrepreneurs were the drivers of technological progress. Given that one new innovation by an entrepreneur or inventor can open up a new profit stream which then persuades anot her of their kind to innovate, thus providing new wealth and increasing profits in the economy as a whole, which in turn drives growth. More recently Kondratieff using his ‘long-wave theory of innovation’ demonstrated how innovation was responsible for major eras of economic growth and technological development. He described this as a series of wave-like peaks and troughs each lasting between forty or fifty years, which span prosperity during peak periods of innovation and technological progress, and as this recedes a gradual recession into a trough of depression exists. For instance he observes over the la... ...sign training called the T-shaped designer a new way of design thinking by using design processes and methods to foster innovation and grow business – design is a way of thinking. The stem of the T is the depth of knowledge in their specialist subject while the horizontal cap of the T represents the breadth – their ability to make their method, skills and thinking work in a different context. This has led some American schools and university to change their approach to design schooling. In the United Kingdom new courses from centres of excellence are to be offered with a hands-on and multidisciplinary classes combining management studies, engineering, technology and design creativity. All this is positive for business and UK design as heading into the 21st century the need for innovative products will grow as global business becomes even greedier for new things.

Disruption in Attachment

Attachments can often be disrupted between an infant and its primary caregiver and these particular children can find themselves growing up and developing outside the traditional family environment. Thus not forming attachments can have serious impacts on the development of the infant. Disruptions to attachments can take place due to the lack of physical and emotional attachment (Privation) and separation from the primary caregiver. In disruption of attachments there are long-term and short-term effects of separation.In short-term effects of separation, the infants are likely to respond to the separation from their primary attachment figure with a behaviour pattern in three stages; Protest, Despair and Detachment. Robertson and Bowlby investigated the effects of infants separated from their mothers and found that the distress felt by the infants fell into three categories (PDD). Conversely other researchers such as Barrett have argued that the childs initial response to separation is actually the effort to cope with the feelings produced due to separation.Protest is the beginning, when the child starts to cry, scream and protest with rage when the parent leaves them. The infant at this point will try to cling on to the parent and will reject all attempts by others to try and pick them up. Despair, is when the infants anger seems to have calmed down although they may still feel a little upset, the infant will lose interest in the environment around him and will again reject attempts by other people to console the infant.Lastly there is detachment, at this point if the separation has continued the infant will have started to engage with other people but may still seem cautious, they will also reject the caregiver on reunion and engage with signs of anger. The reaction to short-term was shown by Robertson’s in their study of 17 months old John who was placed in a residential nursery for nine days, where he was neither mothered by the nurses nor protected fr om other children who attacked him, eventually he became very distressed and at reunion with his mother he rejected her.A few long-term effect of separation are; separation anxiety, extreme clinginess (the child will try their best to stay with the primary caregiver as much as possible, wherever they may go), detachment (the child will refuse any physical love such as being hugged, this may be to prevent the primary caregiver from leaving next time), the child will also be more demanding of their attachment figure. On the other hand not all children respond the same ay to separation, some infants may become more stressed or less distressed than others, factors that affect the child’s response are: the age of the child, the type of attachment they share with their primary caregiver, the gender of the child, with whom the child is left with and the quality of care they receive, the infants experience of previous separations. Schaffer and Callender studied the behaviour of 76 ba bies aged between 3 and 51 weeks of age.Their findings where that the seven months showed little clinging and upsetting behaviour however between 12 and 18 months of age the strength of the infants response had increased primarily due to the fact that they may have developed the idea that their primary attachment figure always returns. A securely attached child has a higher chance of coping with separation than an insecure-ambivalent type. Lastly, boys seem to react more strongly to separation than girls.A small number of children experience privation, which is the lack of any attachment at all in their early childhood development. The two types of studies carried out in order to inform us about the severe effects of privation are; case studies of infants who have been brought up in very bad conditions where they were also unable to form any attachments, and the studies of children who have been raised in institutionalised care.Koluchova reported a case study of twin boys who were b orn in Czechoslovakia and brought up in care soon after their mother had died and their father and step-mother had inhumanely treated them, they were severely malnourished, when they were discovered they had no speech and they were also beaten and starved in an unheated cellar away from human activity, this caused them extreme health conditions. They were later adopted by two sisters and gained average intelligence, they attended a mainstream school and there early damage had been repaired with no cognitive issues.Case studies can raise a major ethical issue of making the children who were involved feel as if they were just part of a psychological experiment and were used merely as objects of research, later on in life. Case studies may not always appear accurate, because digging up the past of the participants and concluding from case study research may not always be accurate. However in natural experiment this issue is overcome foe example: Tizard and Hodges study of the long-term effects of emotional privation.Institutionalisation refers to the various behavioural patterns of children who have been raised in institutions, orphanages and children’s care homes. Tizard and Hodges carried out a natural experiment where 65 children were brought up in a children’s home until they were four. For this period of time the children and staff were prohibited from forming attachments with one another, only so the children would not get upset if the person left. Due to the lack of attachment the children did not show fear of strangers, they ran to any adult that entered and cried when they left.This behaviour pattern is known as a disinhibited attachment. When the babies were restored, adopted or remained in the children’s home they were given (participants, teachers, peers, parents etc. ) assessments to complete via questionnaires or interviews. Tizard and Hodges found that the adopted group formed stronger bonds with their parents than the restored infants. This may have been because the restored children felt neglected. The restored children also had worse relationship with their siblings.Nonetheless, all three groups formed very weak peer to peer relationships. The study uses a range of research methods to collect information which is very beneficial for a final conclusion. One major disadvantage of a longitudinal study is the problem of participant attrition, and this was also a problem for Tizard and Hodges research. Ethical issues involved high sensitivity when it came to family relationships and the researchers had to make sure they were extremely cautious during the follow up interviews.They also had to make sure that the participants were in no pressure to continue with the research. In spite of the severe effects of institutionalisation and privation, if infants are removed at six months such as the Romanian orphans (Rutter et al study) tend to make better developmental progress. Children are able to recover from the se only if they are placed under a loving and caring environment after institutionalisation/ privation and they need an opportunity to form a strong bond with an adult who provides them with sufficient attention.

Les Sens †Senses in French

Whenever youre learning a new language, learning the words relating to sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste are some of the first words youll want to know to be able to make conversation. The Five Senses — Les Cinq Sens Sight - la vue, la vision To look (at) - regarder To see - voir Visual (adj) - visuel Eye - un Å“il, eyes - les yeux    Hearing - louà ¯e (fem) To listen (to) - à ©couter To hear - entendre Aural (adj) - oral Ear - une oreille    Taste - le goà »t To taste (actively) - goà »ter To taste (passively) - sentir (le goà »t de) Gustatory (adj) - gustatif Tongue - la langue    Smell - lodorat (masc) To smell (actively: to sniff) - renifler To smell (passively) - sentir Olfactory (adj) - olfactif Nose - le nez    Touch - le toucher To touch - toucher To feel - sentir Tactile (adj) - tactile Hand - la main, skin - la peau The Sixth Sense — Le Sixià ¨me Sens ESP/extrasensory perception - la perception extrasensorielle Clairvoyance - la voyance, le don de double vue Psychic (adj) - tà ©là ©pathe Psychic (noun) - un mà ©dium, un(e) tà ©là ©pathe

Marketing Strategy Dreamworld - 3593 Words

By Elaine Yiting SHAO DREAMERS PARADISE - DREAMWORLD SO MANY WORLDS IN ONE Name: Elaine Yiting SHAO ID: 1955 9224 Tutor: Blake Stanwick Unit Name: Tourism Marketing Unit Code: MKW2600 Word Count: 2876 ï ¿ ½ Table of Contents iiiExecutive Summary ï ¿ ½ 11 Introduction ï ¿ ½ 11.1 Purpose ï ¿ ½ 11.2 Scope ï ¿ ½ 11.3 Methodology ï ¿ ½ 11.4 Limitations ï ¿ ½ 11.5 Assumptions ï ¿ ½ 22 Background ï ¿ ½ 13 Identification of Market Segmentation ï ¿ ½ 13.1 Theory of Market Segmentation ï ¿ ½ 13.2 The Importance of Segmentation ï ¿ ½ 14 Analysing Market Segmentation Using Segmentation Variables ï ¿ ½ 14.1 Recognition of Appropriate Variables ï ¿ ½ 14.2 Application of Market Segmenting Using Different Variables ï ¿ ½ 14.2.1 Geographical Segmentation ï ¿ ½ 14.2.2 Demographic†¦show more content†¦Owned by Macquarie Leisure Trust Group, it serves local, interstate as well as overseas visitors, with the slogan So Many Worlds In One. Dreamworld is located in Coomera, Gold Coast in Queensland. It has entertaining facilities including the Worlds Tallest Freefall Drop Ride - the Giant Drop at 118m. The newest ride at Dreamworld is Flowrider. Other rides include the Tower of Terror (as of 2005 the worlds fifth fastest roller coaster), The Claw, a Ride Trade Gyro Swing, and Cyclone (a dual loop roller coaster). Dreamworld also includes a water park; several restaurants; childrens areas Nick Central, the new Wiggles World for toddlers and infants; as well as many themed playcentres such as Tiger Island, The Australian Wildlife Experience and Gold Rush Country. (Dreamworld, Gold Coast theme park, viewed: 16/09/06) ï ¿ ½ 3 IDENTIFICATION OF MARKET SEGMENTATION _3.1 THEORY OF MARKET SEGMENTATION_ According to Horner and Swarbrooke (2005: 39), Segmentation may be defined as the process of dividing a whole market into subgroups or segments for marketing management purposes. Market segmentation is the division of the overall market for a service into various categories with common characteristics. In response to different segments, organisations facilitate the available resources to achieve greater efficiency, in order to satisfy specific needs of customers. _3.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF SEGMENTATION_ Nowadays, tourism operators faceShow MoreRelatedA Brief Report On Marketing Mix1079 Words   |  5 Pagesthe new ride to Dreamworld. This report will provide a detailed analysis of Dreamworld’s current marketing mix and additionally provide recommended strategies to best promote the new ride. DREAMWORLD MARKETING MIX A marketing mix consists of Product, Place, Price and Promotion. It is fundamental to understand these four elements for developing an effective marketing strategy. Product Dreamworld offers a wide range of products and services to customers. Several services Dreamworld provides are rollercoasterRead MoreThe Representation of Women, Men, and Sexuality in Music Videos9715 Words   |  39 PagesOVERVIEW In this second update of 1991’s groundbreaking Dreamworlds, Sut Jhally critically examines the representation of women, men, and sexuality in music videos. Jhally’s primary argument is that music videos, not unlike other forms of advertising and popular culture, represent the pornographic imagination by offering a degraded and limited view of female sexuality based on narrowly defined adolescent heterosexual male fantasies. Locating the stories and images of music video in a wider contextRead MoreThe Effects Of Music Videos On The World Of Commercial Realism1904 Words   |  8 Pagesthey came up with the slogan â€Å"Come see the softer side of Sears†. Products for men however have a completely different strategy. Products for men are marketed as tough and have a clear purpose. Chevy’s advertising slogan â€Å"Like a rock† or Ford’s slogan â€Å"Build Ford tough† are perfect examples. Men’s products are also often sold in bulk . Yankee candle had a great strategy of marketing candles for men in fragrances such as â€Å"Bacon† and the ever fresh scent of â€Å"Lawn Mower†. While candles are often consideredRead MoreDestination Marketing6124 Words   |  25 PagesExecutive Summary The Gold Coast is indisputably Australias most popular holiday destination and offers many different types of beachfront accommodation, award-winning dining, shopping and thrilling attractions. This marketing report aimed to devise a marketing strategy for this location. It began by scanning the macro environment and found that the location is politically stable, although currently the entire world is being severely affected by the economic recession. This has therefore

Benefits Of The Black Union Army - 1481 Words

Benefits of the Black Union Army-Did Blacks Receive Equal Treatment? Introduction The black union army is a term commonly used to refer to the black men of African American origin who were mostly recruited into the American army as a consequence of the civil war between the northern and southern states. This war came to an end with the surrender of the nonfederal forces in 1865, after a fierce battle that had started three years prior with the firing on Fort Sumter. As a result racial of discrimination, the efforts of African Americans in winning the civil war were not aired. In the earlier years blacks were associated with slavery, and were destined to hard work and service for the whites. They had no constitutional rights to a formal†¦show more content†¦By the end of the victorious civil war, a third of the African American armies out of the estimated 180,000 enlisted until 1865, had perished in the battle fields (A+E Networks, 1). During the 1862, the second black militia group was absorbed into the Union Army in Louisiana by Major General Butler Benjamin, and led by black lieutenants and captains and was to be known as the Louisiana Native Guards. After this incident, the black men took the opportunity and formed many other colored infantries that helped in liberating power from the non federal regime leading to the formation of the Black Union Armies. Benefits of the Black Union Army To a great extent, the involvement of African American’s in the Civil War and the occurrence of this war at the time, the democratic government needed a strong force, assisted in uplifting the status and dignity of the black people in the american society. This created a highway to commence a number of constitutional reforms that gave blacks the freedom and chance to engage in many issues affecting the American people as a nation, and the black identity unlike before. The Emancipation Proclamation Since 1792, the federal law had prohibited the enlisting black men into the army and was to submit and work as slaves in the United States. After one year of warfare with the non federal states, there was evidence of victory to the democratic

Artifact Analysis for Australian Society - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theArtifact Analysis for Australian Society. Answer: Introduction The manner in which the Australian youth behave in the Australian Society has since time immemorial been highly doubted thus made the older members of the population to lose trust in them. This has been highly attributed to the negative manner in which the media depicts them to the general public. In one of the major advanced societies such as Australia, the advent of the Teenagers coupled with the youth culture that is comprised of food, dress, art, as well as music has had a great impact on not only the countrys economic and social values but also on its practices as well (Hemphill et al, 2014). This has thus made the general public perception of the youth in the Australian society to become highly contested. The aim of this research paper is to perform an artifact analysis in which an article from the internet has been selected as a media representation of the issues affecting adolescents in the Australian society. The article critically discusses how the young people in the Austr alian society are depicted and how such depiction has a significant impact on not only their general lives but also on their academic studies. Based on an article in The Weekend Australian Newspaper available on the internet written by Andrea Wan and titled Teenagers are Australias Most Arrested People , it is quite apparent that the author strongly believes that young people have been depicted in negative light in the media (Koubaridis, 2015). Based on the article, it is apparent that the Australian youth is highly in doubt as to whether they can actually believe in anything that they read in the news because the media is full of lies when relaying information about the Australian youth. Based on the article by the author, it can truly be depicted how the youth instead of highly focusing on their studies resort to criminal peaks. The article by the journalist also asserts that most of the offenders in the year 2013 were indeed the young people who were aged between 15 to 19. Based on the information on the web page that is known to emanate from the Australian Institute of Criminology or AIC, it was ascertained that during their late teens, most of the Australian young people were actually at their most highest and dangerous rates of offending. The article asserts that information released by AIC indicated that theft as well as acts that are aimed at causing injury as well as illicit drugs led the way in the youths offending behaviour. The article asserts that according to one of the experts dealing with youth offending known as Professor Mark Halsey from the Flinders University, it was assorted that most of the youth offenders normally just commit one or even few offences and then ultimately grow out of such behaviour (Arnett, 2014). On the other hand, the expert informed news.com.au that the young people who did not grow out of such behaviors ultimately run the serious risk of turning into career criminals in their future lives. This is indeed a warning to young people to be careful on the way they utilize their lives so that they do not grow into seasoned and hardcore criminals in their future. Indeed, the manner in which the young people spend their youth in the contemporary Australian society has become a significant challenge for most of them (Shilton et al, 2015). Based on the article, it is quite evident that the young people who are responsible for causing problems in the Australian society are usually those ones who used to not only flirt with drugs but also who were truants right from their young ages (Kaptsis et al, 2013). The expert asserts that the young people do not start committing offenses when they are in their twenties, but rather, they start during their earlier stages of life, the article further asserts that some of the most common causes of crime among the young people were truancy, school performance, poverty, and the influence of their peers. Based on the web article, it can thus truly be asserted that the place of the young people or the youth for that matter in the general Australian society has been regarded as being problematic from time immemorial. This is regardless of the manner they gather together, how they spend their free time, and even in the manner that they speak (Daube et al, 2015). This has made the general society in Australia to strongly contest the behavior and the role that the young people have. Indeed, the high mediatization of the youth in the Australian society has made them to be depicted as not only a danger but also as posing danger to the other members of the wider population. Based on the article, it is quite apparent that the author and the contributing expert have handled the issue of the young people or the youth on a multicultural perspective. This is attributed to the fact that they assert that the issues affecting young people in the Australian society generally affect all of them regardless of their cultural backgrounds (Xenos et al, 2014). The article clearly challenges the mainstream discourse because it discusses why the various factors that makes the young people behave in the way or manner they do. Based on this article, it is quite apparent that the young people are actually portrayed negatively in the media. This is can thus truly asserted that there are unfair stereotypes of the youth that is promoted on various media platforms especially on the issues to do with binge drinking and drug abuse in general. Relation of the Artifact to Schooling Based on the above artifact, it can truly be asserted that most of the people having problems with the law started during the early ages of their lives. It is thus a genuine assertion that the manner in which the youth or the young people are portrayed in the media has a significant impact on their classroom and general studies work (Lee et al, 2016). It can truly be noted that making positive stories regarding the depiction of the youth in the mainstream media could have a positive impact on their learning and general studies. On the other hand, it can truly be asserted that the negative depiction of the media about the youth will quite ultimately lead to their de-motivation and thus poor performance in class work. For instance, the unbalanced reporting that happens in various media platforms regarding the youth such as being regarded as having poor decision making skills, risk taking, substance abuse, having disrespect for the public property, lack of ambition, and delinquency has left the young people with negative tags that they have completely been unable to shed off in the Australian society. The negative media representation of the young people ultimately results on the poor performance of the young people in their learning (Hindmarsh, 2014). The depiction by media that young people love drug abuse makes some of them to belief it is the youth culture thus affecting their general performance in the classroom performance. It is important for stakeholders in the media industry to note that even though negative stories about the youth may sell highly, positive stories regarding the youth can significantly change or transform the lives of the entire society. It is therefore important to ensure that there is nurturing of a collaborative and positive relationship with all stakeholders in the media in order to attain the right balance. Positive media reporting about the youth will ultimately result in positive performance in the classroom (DeLisi et al, 2016). In order to avoid media stereotyping of the youths and adolescents, it is the highest time that all media platforms started writing positive things and issues about the young population instead of only focusing the negatives. It is also prudent to note that the negative stereotyping of the young people in the Australian society is not the responsibility of the media alone (Sobr-Denton, 2016). Rather, it is a collective responsibility of all the concerned stakeholders right from parents, teachers, pastors or church leaders, and the general Australian society. The Service to Youth Council or SYC should make effort to create awareness among the media stakeholders to write positive articles about the youth in Australia (Mathews et al, 2013). This is because it was ascertained that 7 out of 10 articles in the Australian youth were actually negative. It is also important for media organizations and schools in Australia to work together effectively in ensuring that young people or the youth were connected to media professionals through various networking effected, speeches, as well as through workshops. References Albury, K., Crawford, K., Byron, P., Mathews, B. (2013). Young People and Sexting in Australia. Ethics, Representation, and the Law. University of New South Wales, Australia. Abgerufen von https://jmrc. arts. unsw. edu. au/media/File/Young_People_And_Sexting_Final. pdf, 22, 2014. Arnett, J. J. (2014). Adolescence and emerging adulthood. New York, NY, USA:: Pearson Education Limited. Chang, F. C., Miao, N. F., Lee, C. M., Chen, P. H., Chiu, C. H., Lee, S. C. (2016). The association of media exposure and media literacy with adolescent alcohol and tobacco use. Journal of health psychology, 21(4), 513-525. Eisenberg, M. E., Toumbourou, J. W., Catalano, R. F., Hemphill, S. A. (2014). Social norms in the development of adolescent substance use: A longitudinal analysis of the International Youth Development Study. Journal of youth and adolescence, 43(9), 1486-1497. Hindmarsh, R. (2014). Hot air ablowin!Media-speak, social conflict, and the Australian decoupledwind farm controversy. Social studies of science, 44(2), 194-217. Houghton, S., Hunter, S. C., Rosenberg, M., Wood, L., Zadow, C., Martin, K., Shilton, T. (2015). Virtually impossible: limiting Australian children and adolescents daily screen based media use. BMC public health, 15(1), 5. King, D. L., Delfabbro, P. H., Zwaans, T., Kaptsis, D. (2013). Clinical features and axis I comorbidity of Australian adolescent pathological Internet and video game users. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 47(11), 1058-1067. Koubaridis, A. (2015). Teenagers are Australias Most Arrested People. Retrieved on 26th May 2017 from https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/teenagers-are-australias-most-arrested-people/news-story/21fde14f95c6772e56268dc07e014f96 Loader, B. D., Vromen, A., Xenos, M. A. (2014). The networked young citizen: social media, political participation and civic engagement. Regoli, R. M., Hewitt, J. D., DeLisi, M. (2016). Delinquency in society. Jones Bartlett Publishers. Sobr-Denton, M. (2016). Virtual intercultural bridgework: Social media, virtual cosmopolitanism, and activist community-building. new media society, 18(8), 1715-1731. Thomas, S. L., Bestman, A., Pitt, H., Deans, E., Randle, M. J., Stoneham, M., Daube, M. (2015). The marketing of wagering on social media: An analysis of promotional content on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

The Internet Past And Future Essays - Cultural Globalization

The Internet: Past And Future The Internet is an extension of a computer network originally formed in the United States during the 1960s by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Working under contract to the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPA initially connected computers at the Stanford Research Institute in California, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the University of Utah. This original network, the very first computer network, was called ARPANET (ARPA NETwork). Scientists built ARPANET with the intention of creating a network that would still be able to function efficiently if part of the network was damaged. This concept was important to military organizations, which were studying ways to maintain a working communications network in the event of nuclear war. As ARPANET grew in the 1970s, with more and more universities and institutions connecting to it, users found it necessary to establish standards for the way that data was transmitted over the network. To meet the needs of data transmission standards, computer scientists developed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP). During the 1970s various government, scientific, and academic groups developed their own networks. Examples include the Department of Energy's (DoE) Magnetic Fusion Energy Network (MFENet), the High Energy Physics NETwork (HEPNET), and the National Science Foundation NETwork (see NSFNET). In 1989 English computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee initially designed the WWW to aid communication between physicists who were working in different parts of the world for the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). As it grew, however, the WWW revolutionized the use of the Internet. During the early 1990s increasingly large numbers of users who were not part of the scientific or academic communities began to use the Internet, due in large part to the ability of the WWW to easily handle multimedia documents. A major challenge facing the continued growth of the Internet is the difficulty of providing enough bandwidth to sustain the network. As Internet applications become more sophisticated, and as more people around the world use the Internet, the amount of information transmitted across the Internet will demand very high bandwidth connections. While many communications companies are attempting to develop higher bandwidth technologies, it is not known whether the technology will be able to satisfactorily keep up with demand. In order to accommodate the increasing number of users, the non-profit organization University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) is working on the construction of Internet 2. Internet 2 will add more bandwidth, or available communication lines, to the current information superhighway in order to accommodate larger packets of data. UCAID members include representatives from universities, the government, and the computer industry. Another important question facing Internet growth is the issue of censorship. Because the Internet has grown so rapidly, governments have been slow to regulate its use and to pass laws regarding what content is acceptable. Many Internet users also see such laws as an infringement on their right to free speech. In 1996 the Congress of the United States passed the Communications Decency Act, which made it a crime to transmit indecent material over the Internet. This decision resulted in an immediate outcry from users, industry experts, and civil liberties groups opposed to such censorship. In 1997 the United States Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional because it violated First Amendment rights to free speech. Lawmakers responded in 1998 by passing a narrower antipornography bill, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). This law required commercial WWW sites to ensure that children could not access material deemed ?harmful to minors.? In 1999 a federal judge blocked that bill as well, ruling that it too would dangerously restrict constitutionally protected free speech. Increasing commercial use of the Internet has heightened security and privacy concerns. With a credit or debit card, Internet users can order almost anything from an Internet site and have it delivered to their home or office. Companies doing business over the Internet must have very sophisticated security measures in place so that information such as credit card, bank account, and social security numbers cannot be accessed by unauthorized users (see Computer Security). Similarly, government facilities, universities, and institutions must ensure that access