Business Plan for Mobile Phone Shop

Business Plan for Mobile Phone Shop The purpose for this business plan to study the feasibility to establish a mobile phone showroom in Abu Dhabi City, the capital of United Arab Emirates. The showroom will offer Nokia mobile phones as main product. Along with that we will offer a wide range of accessories and relevant spare parts. MyPhone provides both mobile phones products and services to make them useful to private users. We are especially focused on providing customer satisfaction to our esteemed customers. The products include both hand held mobile telephone sets and servicing the products after sales along with giving the necessary training and support. The only way we can hope to differentiate well is to define the vision of the company to be a technology ally to our clients. We will not be able to compete in any effective way with the chains using boxes or products as appliances. We need to offer a real alliance. The benefits we sell include many intangibles: confidence, reliability, knowing that somebody will be there to answer questions and help at the important times. The definitive worldwide standard for wireless communications has just broken through the 200 million-customer barriers. However, the GSM industry is one of the most impressive success stories of the 1990s and currently generates more than $100 Billion a year in subscriber revenues alone. We have some major mobile phone distributors in the city, such like Emirates Computers, Juma Al-Majed and Jumbo Electronics. If our strategy works, we will have differentiated ourselves sufficiently to not have to compete against these stores. Our strategy hinges on providing excellent service and support. This is critical. We need to differentiate on service and support, and to therefore deliver as well. Our business is a retail store. The ideal place for the prospected Showroom will be at the new constructed shopping center in Tourist Club Area at East Side of Abu Dhabi City. In order to hold costs down as much as possible, we concentrate our purchasing with Nokia Regional Office in Jabel Ali at Dubai. We are going to have four major employees: Manger, Sales Lady, Technician and accountant. There are some factors that will affect severely on the growing of our proposed business, such like: Customer is looking into factory guarantee for replacement the defected sets. Nokia corporation will grant us immediately this kind of warranty. Usually customers are insisting in buying only the original spare parts and accessories. Therefore we are going to offer only original spare parts and accessories to gain the customer satisfaction. 1.1 Vision Statement: MyPhone is such a vendor. It serves its clients as a trusted ally, providing them with the loyalty of a business partner and the economics of an outside vendor. We make sure that our clients have what they need to run their private and business life as well as possible, with maximum efficiency and reliability. Our ambitious is mission critical, so we give our clients the assurance that we will be there when they need us. 1.2 Products: MyPhone provides both mobile phones products and services to make them useful to private users. We are especially focused on providing customer satisfaction to our esteemed customers. The products include both hand held mobile telephone sets and servicing the products after sales along with giving the necessary training and support. In mobile phones, we support three main lines: The less feature mobile telephone set, which is our smallest and least expensive line, initially positioned by its manufacturer as low-income users. We use it mainly as a cheap mobile phone for workers and non- professional people. The Power User is our main up-scale line. It is our most important mobile telephone set for high-end individual as classified for medium range of income, because of they are the majority of the users, and they are requiring sets with more features and large capacity batteries. However, we will offer a luxury type of mobile telephone set with extreme fancy looking and elegant design, for the upper class of the society and manly for the Ladies who are impressed for such model as part of their prestige in the society. In service and support, we offer a range of walk-in service and guarantees through our well capable workshop and professional technician. 1.3 Key Features of Products: The only way we can hope to differentiate well is to define the vision of the company to be a technology ally to our clients. We will not be able to compete in any effective way with the chains using boxes or products as appliances. We need to offer a real alliance. The benefits we sell include many intangibles: confidence, reliability, knowing that somebody will be there to answer questions and help at the important times. These are complex products, products that require serious knowledge and experience to use, and our competitors sell only the products themselves. Unfortunately, we cannot sell the products at a higher price just because we offer services; the market has shown that it will not support that concept. We have to also sell the service and charge for it separately. 1.4 Production of Product: As we are attending to be as a distributor only for one of the major brand of Mobile Phone in the market Nokia. Therefore we will import or stock directly, and it will not be any kind of production in our firm. Moreover, our business will depend on retailing and not on production. 2) Company Industry: 2.1 Overview of the Industry Community: The Industry: GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications): The definitive worldwide standard for wireless communications has just broken through the 200 million-customer barriers. Achieving this milestone of 200 million subscribers to GSM services is the powerful result of the continuing need for people to communicate and access information on the move. With four new customers every second, the latest figures exceed, yet again, all industry predictions and demonstrate the persistently dramatic growth of GSM throughout the world. As at the end of 1997, there were more than 200 million mobile phone subscribers worldwide and the global sales volume was over 100 million units, an increase of about 50% from the previous year. By the end of the year 2001, it is believed that the global subscriber base will have grown to approximately 600 million. Coupled with the subscriber increase, the mobile phone sales volumes are growing due to the rise of the replacement market. GSM has established itself as the worlds leading digital wireless standard, and it is believed that the current growth rates will continue for the foreseeable future. At present levels, it is confident in the predictions that by the year 2005, it will have achieved between 700 million and One Billion GSM customers worldwide. The GSM industry is one of the most impressive success stories of the 1990s and currently generates more than $100 Billion a year in subscriber revenues alone. Its impressive growth rates are once again attributed to soaring global markets and the sustained penetration of new emerging markets. In all the markets it has been starting to see a widespread take-up of a host of GSM value added services, beyond voice usage, including data and text applications. This demonstrates how GSM is an evolving technology that offers exciting new services and opportunities for subscribers. The future is even more exciting, as the development path for the GSM standard is clearly mapped out and presents an exciting era of applications and services that will stretch the bounds of the imagination. It is moving closer and closer to the delivery of third generation services, which will see multi-media applications, internet access and access to real-time video, via GSM-based networks and handsets. This will ensure that GSM continues to be the standard of choice and heralds continued massive customer growth in the years to come. The Emirates Telecommunication Corporation Etisalat: The UAE has a prominent status in the field of telecommunications as its achievements are reaching the quality and standards of the developed countries. The demands for telecommunications facilities in the UAE are growing at a phenomenal rate. The local Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (ETISALAT) which is 60% state-owned controls this sector and 40% owned by private UAE investors. Since its creation in 1976, Etisalat has increased the number of telephone lines from 50,000 to over 850,000 and plans to raise switching capacity by an annual rate of 100,000. In the UAE, demand for new lines is growing at about 12% per year. Etisalat, motivated by the realization that attractive infrastructure would encourage many businesses to locate in the UAE, has become one of the most profitable telecommunications organizations in the Gulf region and has joined in a number of projects, ranging from a 19,000 kilometers fiber-optic cable to link Europe with South-East Asia. The first stage of the cable link is to lay the so-called Fiber-Optic Gulf (FOG), which will use the most modern submarine technology and provide the UAE with links capable of carrying around 120,000 voice channels at any one time. Etisalat is the name that spells reliable communications in the UAE with global connectivity. Etisalat provides services on a par with the best in the world and has an advanced communications network, which is virtually fault free. All switching systems are digital, common channel signaling system number 7 (SS7) has been introduced, and an analog mobile radio network has been operating successfully for several years. Some of the state of the art services being offered by Etisalat: Telephone Service: This is done through public call offices, pay phones, smart card and credit card operated pay phones, smart card operated pay phones, and others. A report by the Etisalats director general showed that the direct telephone switchboard lines increased by (10 %) lines yearly and totaling 850,000 at the end of 1999. Telephone lines percentage also increased from 29 to 31 for each 100 people which places the UAE in the lead of the Gulf region. The report also indicated an increase of 27.9% in public phones with an amount of 20,000 at the end of 1999 compared to 12,078 in 1995. As far as mobile phones are concerned, the number of subscriptions reached 1.2 million in end of 1999 compared to 128,495 in 1995. As it is roughly one-in-two of the population and 30,000 to 40,000 new phones were being sold each month. Thus Etisalat maintained its leading position among the countries of the region by realizing the highest growth rates of mobile phones at 50 phones for every 100 people. The Global System for Mobile GSM Communication The digital mobile system which gives a new dimension to mobile communications has been in growing demand because of its satisfactory requirements for national mobile radio networks. These are high performance, international compatibility, fully digital operation, and encrypted air-interface. The UAE is one of the first countries in the Gulf region to introduce this service to serve the social and economic developments in the country. One of the main benefits of the GSM, is the ability to use the GSM service on most of the GSM networks around the world, Charges: GSM service connection Dhs 200 once only GSM service subscription Dhs 90 per quarter SIM card Dhs 30 Call charges (Normal Rate) Dhs 0.39/min. 7:00am to 2:00pm and 4:00pm to 12:00am, (For all days of the week) Call charges (Cheap Rate) Dhs 0.21/min. 2:00pm to 4:00pm and 12:00am to 7:00am, (on all days of the week) International Calls Normal IDD rates apply Emirates Internet: The UAEs window to the world offering connectivity to an unlimited number of network, computers, and users worldwide. The Emirates Internet was established in June 1995. The number of Internet subscribed reached over 25,000 by the end of November 1997. Fax Plus: A new fax plus state-of-the-art service with a host of advanced facilities which lets the person operate even without owning a fax machine. Paging Service: This radio paging service enables people on the move to be in touch in an easy and economical way almost anywhere in the UAE. According to Al Ittihad Newspaper, the UAE is ranked 7th worldwide, with 10% of the population using this service. Voice Mail Service: This includes videoconference service, consultation services, and interactive information service. ATM Service: The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a new service launched recently in order to speed up connections to customers. This is a broadband communications technology, which provides a way of transporting data from a wide range of applications using one seamless network. This service is being introduced to cater for the growing needs of education and business in the UAE and as part of Etisalats planning for the future. Satellite A new satellite company called Al-Thurayya Satellite Communications Organization was launched in January 1997. Its capital is worth $25 million and owned 26% by Etisalat, 20% by the Abu Dhabi Investments Company, 10% by the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat), and 10% by Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco), and 44% is owned by other Arab government. The company was set up to own and operates the Thurayya satellite system, which will serve the rapidly expanding mobile phone sector. It will cover the Arab states and part of Europe and the Indian sub-continent. The Community: Abu Dhabi City: Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Its population was estimated 850,000 on 1998, with 70% males. The Gross National Product was estimated on the same fiscal year at Dhs. 65,850 per Capita which equivalent to U.S.$ 17,870. The Gross National Private Local Consumer was Dhs 25,040 per capita. The Gross National Government Consuming was Dhs 10,582 per capita. The Gross National Expenditure was Dhs 48,926 per capita. Which can be lead to be one of the highest per capita in the world. Abu Dhabi is very Modern City. Most of its constructions are less than 15 years old. Since it is the U.A.E. capital, it is containing all the headquarters of the Federal Ministries and other government departments and authorities, beside all the oil and gas companies headquarters, more than 63 local and international banks and many regional offices of the multinational companies. In addition to that, Abu Dhabi has One public women university Zayed University, two campuses of Higher Colleges of Technologies and several colleges branches. 2.2 Major Competitors: a) Major Distributors: We have some major mobile phone distributors in the city, such like Emirates Computers, Juma Al-Majed and Jumbo Electronics. If our strategy works, we will have differentiated ourselves sufficiently to not have to compete against these stores. Strengths: national image, high volume, aggressive pricing, and economies of scale. Weaknesses: lack of product, service and support knowledge, lack of personal attention. b) Other Local Stores: There are more than one hundred retail mobile phone Stores in Abu Dhabi city. These tend to be small businesses, owned by people who started them because they liked mobile phones. They are under-capitalized and under-managed. Margins are squeezed as they compete against the major distributors and against each other in an attempt to match prices. The competition based on price more than on service and support. When asked, the owners will complain that the major distributors squeeze margins and customers buy on price only. They say they tried offering services and that buyers didnt care, instead preferring lower prices. We think the problem is also that they didnt really offer good service, and also that they didnt differentiate from the major distributors. Moreover they are depending in the gray market. 2.3 Comparative Advantages: The marketing of mobile services to business users, and more recently to consumers, has resulted in spectacular growth in the number of subscribers in Gulf Area. Operators now face the challenges of rising customer quantity, the prospect of declining revenue per subscriber, and the scrutiny of performance by investors. Achieving success in these new market conditions calls for a change in strategy from mobile operators a fresh approach to marketing, distribution and customer service to attract more new customers whilst retaining existing customers and protecting future revenue. The buyers understand the concept of service and support, and are much more likely to pay for it when the offering is clearly stated. There is no doubt that we compete much more against all the box pushers than against other service providers. We need to effectively compete against the idea that businesses should buy mobile phones as easy and friendly appliances that dont need ongoing service, support, and training. Our focus group sessions indicated that our target professional users think about price but would buy based on quality service if the offering were properly presented. They think about price because thats all they ever see. We have very good indications that many would rather pay 10-20% more for a relationship with a long-term vendor providing back up and quality service and support; they end up in the box-pusher channels because they arent aware of the alternatives. Availability of the stock is also very important. The buyers tend to want immediate, local solutions to problems. However, our value proposition has to be different from the standard retail shops. We offer our target customer, who is service seeking and not self reliant, a vendor who acts as a strategic ally, at a premium price that reflects the value of reassurance that sets will work. Moreover, our competitive edge is our positioning as strategic ally with our clients, who are clients more than customers. By building a business based on long-standing relationships with satisfied clients, we simultaneously build defenses against competition. The longer the relationship stands, the more we help our clients understand what we offer them and why they need it. Service and Support Our strategy hinges on providing excellent service and support. This is critical. We need to differentiate on service and support, and to therefore deliver as well. 2.4 Future Products Services: We must remain on top of the new technologies, because this is our bread and butter. For telephone sets, we need to provide better knowledge of cross GSS and WAP technologies. Also, we are under pressure to improve our understanding of direct-connect Internet and related communications. Finally, although we have a good command of accessories, we are concerned about getting better at the integration of technologies that creates fax, WAP, E-mail, and voice mail as part of the mobile Telephone set. 3) Operations: 3.1 Location Premises: Our business is a retail store. Therefore in this type of business the customer will come to it, not the sales person has to go to the customer. It is kind of pulling sales strategy not pushing sales strategy. Thus, the physical location will be the key to success or failure to this business. However, the ideal place for the prospected Showroom, after taking in consideration the locations for the others competitors, will be at the new constructed shopping center in Tourist Club Area at East Side of Abu Dhabi City. As in new shopping center, we will enjoy the being in the summit reputation beside the advantage of parking lot availability, which has become a great problem in the city in these days. The shop will be at the ground floor. To grantee that all the visitors of this particular Shopping Center will have the chance to see the place and they will be aware that a new mobile showroom will be available for them. Furthermore, we can utilize the front of the showroom to demonstrating the products in front of the shoppers, They will see and know what kind of products we are offering before they have even entered to the showroom. The area for the place is suggested to be not less than 100 square meters that can be distributed as the following: Lounge with area of 50 square meter. Two small offices one for the showroom manager and the other for the accountant with area of 6 square meters for each of them. Store with an area of 5 square meters, for the products with necessary cabinets. Service Area of 20 square meters furnituing with necessary tables, counter and cabinets. 3.2 Purchase: Our costs are part of the margin squeeze. As competition on price increases, the squeeze between manufacturers price into channels and end-users ultimate buying price continues. With the mobile phone sets, our margins are declining steadily. It is being squeezed to more like 13-15% at present. In the main-line accessories a similar trend shows, with prices declining steadily. In order to hold costs down as much as possible, we concentrate our purchasing with Nokia Regional Office in Jabel Ali, which offers 30-day net terms and overnight shipping from the warehouse at Jabel Ali in Dubai. We need to concentrate on making sure our volume gives us negotiating strength. Moreover, In accessories and add-on we can still get decent margins, 25% to 40%. 3.3 Resources: a) We are going to have four major employees: Employee Responsibilities Manger Supervising and Purchasing affairs Sales Lady Sales Affairs Technician Workshop Affairs Accountant Accounts and Bookkeeping We are in need for very little equipment to run the project; this equipment will be bought. As no trend in United Arab Emirates to rent such equipment. 4) Management: The management in the our firm believes very strongly that relationships should be forthright, work should be structured with enough room for creativity, and pay should be commensurate with the amount and quality of work completed. 4.1 Management Structure: Owner Manager Accountant Sales Lady Technician 4.2 Professional Services Employee Training: A) Legal Affairs: Especially in the beginning, therefore we have already negotiated with a very respectful Advocate office in Abu Dhabi City, who is having a good experience in the commercial and civil affairs. He will take care for all the Legal Affairs, including Renting Contract, Maintenance Contract, and Labor/Employee Contracts, Revising the purchasing and banking agreements, etc. B) Accounting Procedures: The financial information is too essential for an well-organized business firm. Therefore a bookkeeping system has to be maintained to include all the account procedures. Moreover, all the payments to be made preferably by checks, and not by cash. The daily sales to be deposited in the bank next working day. However to organize the purchasing of the goods, They would be imported by the banks letter of credit (L.C.) only. C) Insurance Expenses: Our mobile phone showroom should insure the business along with its stock. As our business requires insurance for such robbery crimes or thefts. Further, we will insure our staff. We can estimate the insurance premium at Dhs. 6,000 for the First year. As revenue increases in the second and third year of Business. D) Banking Affairs: As the purchasing of the main product will be from Jabel Ali warehouse of regional company of Nokia, therefore the financing of such deals should be on Letter of Credit (LC). We will intend to open two current accounts with two different banks, which will give us more flexibility in the finance procedures. Employee Training: We will have only four staff. These staff will hire them, with sufficient experience in the relative field. Therefore, no training is mainly required at the beginning. However, the regional office of Nokia in Jabel Ali Free Zone, they are organizing such training session, whenever new product is introduce to the market. Therefore we are planning to send our technician to these training session whenever they will be made available. 4.3 Risks Plans to Minimize: There are some factors that will affect severely on the growing of our proposed business, such like: Customer is looking into factory guarantee for replacement the defected sets. Since we are purchasing directly from the regional office in Jabel Ali free zone. Therefore, Nokia corporation will grant us immediately this kind of warranty. However some other retail shops are buying their product from the gray market in Dubai. In this case, they can not offer any kind of grantee in their products. Moreover, we are attending to put this information on all of our advertising campaigns and sale brochures. Usually customers are insisting in buying only the original spare parts and accessories (which are coming from same manufacture). Therefore we are going to offer only original spare parts and accessories to gain the customer satisfaction. 4.4 Implementation Schedule: Activity Deadline Required Time Start Date Renting The Space Jan 31,2001 One month Jan 2, 2001 Decoration Mar. 31, 2001 Two Months Feb 1, 2001 Hiring the Staff Mar. 31, 2001 One month Mar. 1, 2001 Furnishing April 30, 2001 One month April 1, 2001 Importing the goods April 30, 2001 Two Months Mar. 1, 2001 Grand Opening May 1, 2001

College Pressure

â€Å"What's wrong with the students of today? Back when I was a student we had a better attitude! † Criticisms like this are often heard from parents and teachers, in the newspapers and other media? And it's been that way ever since education began. No matter what society or era you consider, there are always plenty of wise authorities pointing out that â€Å"The students of today† are somehow failing to grasp the true meaning of university education. Or maybe it's the other way around: Are universities failing to grasp the true meaning of students? This text examines different aspects of this question and discusses the many pressures that modern students face. College  Pressures William Zinsser I am master of Branford College at Yale. I live on the campus and know the students well. (We have 485 of them. ) I listen to their hopes and fears — and also to their stereo music and their piercing cries in the dead of night (â€Å"Does anybody care? â€Å"). They come to me to ask how to get through the rest of their lives. Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They don't want to hear such news. They want a map — right now — that they can follow directly to career security, financial security, social security and, presumably, a prepaid grave. What I wish for all students is some release from the grim grip of the future. I wish them a chance to enjoy each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a tiresome requirement in preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as educational as victory and is not the end of the world. My wish, of course, is naive. One of the few rights that America does not proclaim is the right to fail. Achievement is the national god, worshipped in our media — the million-dollar athlete, the wealthy executive — and glorified in our praise of possessions. In the presence of such a potent state religion, the young are growing up old. I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It's easy to look around for bad guys — to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are no bad guys, only victims. Today it is not unusual for a student, even one who works part time at college and full time during the summer, to have accumulated $5,000 in loans after four years — loans that the student must start to repay within one year after graduation (and incidentally, not all these loans are low-interest, as many non-students believe). Encouraged at the commencement ceremony to go forth into the world, students are already behind as they go forth. How can they not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? Women at Yale are under even more pressure than men to justify their expensive education to themselves, their parents, and society. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male jobs, society hasn't yet caught up with this fact. Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined. I see students taking premedical courses with joyless determination. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know them in other corners of their life as cheerful people. â€Å"Do you want to go to medical school? † I ask them. â€Å"I guess so,† they say, without conviction, or, â€Å"Not really. †    â€Å"Then why are you going? † â€Å"My parents want me to be a doctor. They're paying all this money and †¦ †   Ã‚   Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin from the very start of freshman year. I had a freshman student I'll call Linda,† one instructor told me, â€Å"who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I couldn't tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda. † The story is almost funny — except that it's not . It's a symptom of all the pressures put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they could sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the rattling of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due: â€Å"Will I get everything done? †   Ã‚  Ã‚   Probably they won't. They will get sick. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They will bug out. I've painted too grim a portrait of today's students, making them seem too solemn. That's only half of their story; the other half is that these students are nice people, and easy to like. They're quick to laugh and to offer friendship. They're more considerate of one another than any student generation I've ever known. If I've described them primarily as driven creatures who largely ignore the joyful side of life, it's because that's where the problem is — not only at Yale but throughout American education. It's why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age. I tell students that there is no one â€Å"right† way to get ahead — that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination. I tell them that change is healthy and that people don't have to fit into pre-arranged slots. One of my ways of telling them is to invite men and women who have achieved success outside the academic world to come and talk informally with my students during the year. I invite heads of companies, editors of magazines, politicians, Broadway producers, artists, writers, economists, photographers, scientists, historians — a mixed bag of achievers. I ask them to say a few words about how they got started. The students always assume that they started in their present profession and knew all along that it was what they wanted to do. But in fact, most of them got where they are by a circuitous route, after many side trips. The students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not preplanned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to lead them down some unforeseen trail. College Pressures by William Zinsser( , ) , , , Dear Carlos: I desperately need a dean's excuse for my chem midterm which will begin in about 1 hour. All I can say is that I totally blew it this week. I've fallen incredibly, inconceivably behind. Carlos: Help! I'm anxious to hear from you. I'll be in my room and won't leave it until I hear from you. Tomorrow is the last day for †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Carlos: I left town because I started bugging out again. I stayed up all night to finish a take-home make-up exam and am typing it to hand in on the 10th. It was due on the 5th. P. S. I'm going to the dentist. Pain is pretty bad. Carlos: Probably by Friday I'll be able to get back to my studies. Right now I'm going to take a long walk. This whole thing has taken a lot out of me. Carlos: I'm really up the proverbial creek. The problem is I really bombed the history final. Since I need that course for my major I †¦. Carlos: Here follows a tale of woe. I went home this weekend, had to help my Mom, and caught a fever so didn't have much time to study. My professor †¦.. Carlos: Aargh!! Trouble. Nothing original but everything's piling up at once. To be brief, my job interview †¦.. Hey Carlos, good news! I've got mononucleosis. Who are these wretched supplicants, scribbling notes so laden with anxiety, seeking such miracles of postponement and balm? They are men and women who belong to Branford College, one of the twelve residential colleges at Yale University, and the messages are just a few of the hundreds that they left for their dean, Carlos Hortas — often slipped under his door at 4 a. m. — last year. But students like the ones who wrote those notes can also be found on campuses from coast to coast — especially in New England, and at many other private colleges across the country that have high academic standards and highly motivated students. Nobody could doubt that the notes are real. In their urgency and their gallows humor they are authentic voices of a generation that is panicky to succeed. My own connection with the message writers is that I am master of Branford College. I live in its Gothic quadrangle and know the students well. (We have 485 of them. ) I am privy to their hopes and fears — and also to their stereo music and their piercing cries in the dead of night (â€Å"Does anybody ca-a-are? â€Å"). If they went to Carlos to ask how to get through tomorrow, they come to me to ask how to get through the rest of their lives. Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They don't want to hear such liberating news. They want a map — right now — that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, social security and, presumably, a prepaid grave. What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy grip of the future. I wish them a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive as victory and is not the end of the world. My wish, of course, is naive. One of the few rights that America does not proclaim is the right to fail. Achievement is the national god, venerated in our media — the million dollar athlete, the wealthy executive — and the glorified in our praise of possessions. In the presence of such a potent state religion, the young are growing up old. I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It is easy to look around for villians — to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are are no villians, only victims. â€Å"In the late 1960's,† one dean told me, â€Å"the typical question that I got from students was, ‘Why is there so much suffering in the world? ‘ or ‘How can I make a contribution? ‘ Today it's, ‘Do you think it would look better for getting into law school if I did a double major in history and political science, or just majored in one of them? Many other deans confirmed this pattern. One said, â€Å"They're trying to find an edge — the intangible something that will look better on paper if two students are about equal. † Note the emphasis on looking better. The transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security. How one appears on pape r is more important than how one appears in person. A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline, even though, in Yale's official system of grading, A means â€Å"excellent† and B means â€Å"very good. † Today, looking very good is no longer enough, especially for students who hope to go on to law school or medical school. They know that entrance into the better schools will be an entrance into the better law firms and better medical practices where they will make a lot of money. They also know that the odds are harsh, Yale Law School, for instance, matriculates 170 students from an applicant pool of 3,700; Harvard enrolls 550 from a pool of 7,000. It's all very well for those of us who write letters of recommendation for our students to stress the qualities of humanity that will make them good lawyers or doctors. And it's nice to think that admission officers are really reading our letters and looking for the extra dimension of commitment or concern. Still, it would be hard for a student not to visualize these officers shuffling so many transcripts studded with A's that they regard a B as positively shameful. The pressure is almost as heavy on students who just want to graduate and get a job. Long gone are the days of the â€Å"gentlemen's C,† when students journeyed through college with a certain relaxation, sampling a wide variety of courses — music, art, philosophy, classics, anthropology, poetry, religion — that would send them out as liberally educated men and women. If I were an employer I would employ graduates who have this range and curiousity rather than those who narrowly purused safe subjects and high grades. I know countless students whose inquiring minds exhilarate me. I like to hear the play of their ideas. I don't know if they are getting A's or C's, and I don't care. I also like them as people. The country needs them, and they will find satisfying jobs. I tell them to relax. They can't. Nor can I blame them. They live in a brutal economy. Tuition, room, and board at most private colleges now comes to at least $7,000, not counting books and fees. This might seem to suggest that the colleges are getting rich. But they are equally battered by inflation. Tuition covers only 60% of what it costs to educate a student, and ordinarily the remainder comes from what colleges receive in endowments, grants, and gifts. Now the remainder keeps being swallowed by the cruel costs higher every year, of just opening the doors. Heating oil is up. Insurance is up. Postage is up. Health premium costs are up. Everything is up. Deficits are up. We are witnessing in America the creation of a brotherhood of paupers — colleges, parents and students, joined by the common bond of debt. Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part-time at college and full-time during the summer, to accrue $5,000 in loans after four years — loans that he must start to repay within one year after graduation. Exhorted at commencement to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth. How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? I have used â€Å"he,† incidentally, only for brevity. Women at Yale are under no less pressure to justify their expensive education to themsleves, their parents, and society. In fact, they are probably under more pressure. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male jobs, society hasn't yet caught up with that fact. Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined. I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless tenacity. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know them in other corners of their life as cheerful people. â€Å"Do you want to go to medical school? I ask them. â€Å"I guess so,† they say, without conviction, or â€Å"Not really. † â€Å"Then why are you going? † â€Å"Well, my parents want me to be a doctor. They're paying all this money and †¦ † Poor students, poor parents. They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean well; they are trying to steer their sons and daughters toward a secure future. But the so ns and daughters want to major in history or classics or philosophy — subjects with no â€Å"practical† value. Where's the payoff on the humanities? It's not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do, indeed, pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects like history and classics — an ability to synthesize and relate, to weigh cause and effect, to see events in perspective — are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field. Still, many thaters would rather put their money on courses that point toward a specific profession — courses that are pre-law, pre-medical, pre-business, or as I sometimes put it, â€Å"pre-rich. † But the pressure on students is severe. They are truly torn. One part of them feels obligated to fulfill their parents' expectations; after all, their parents are older and presumably wiser. Another part tells them that the expectations that are right for their parents are not right for them. I know a student who wants to be an artist. She is very obviously an artist and will be a good one — she has already had several modest local exhibits. Meanwhile she is growing as a well-rounded person and taking humanistic subjects that will enrich the inner resources out of which her art will grow. But her father is strongly opposed. He thinks that an artist is a â€Å"dumb† thing to be. The student vacillates and tries to please everybody. She keeps up with her art somewhat furtively and takes some of the â€Å"dumb† courses her father wants her to take — at least they are dumb courses for her. She is a free spirit on a campus of tense students — no small achievement in itself — she deserves to follow her muse. Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin almost at the beginning of freshman year. I had a freshman student I'll call Linda, † one dean told me, â€Å"who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I couldn't tell her that Barabra had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda. † The story is almost funny — except that it's not. It's symptomatic of all the pressures put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they would sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the clack of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due : â€Å"Will I get everything done? † Probably they won't. They will get sick. They will get â€Å"blocked†. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They will bug out. Hey Carlos, Help! Part of the problem is that they do more than they are expected to do. A professor will assign five-page papers. Several students will start writing ten-page papers, and a few will raise the ante to fifteen. Pity the poor student who is still just doing the assignment. â€Å"Once you have twenty or thirty percent of the student population deliberately overexerting,† one dean points out, â€Å"it's just bad for everybody. When a teacher gets more and more effort from his class, the student who is doing normal work can be perceived as not doing well. The tactic works, psychologically. † Why can't the professor just cut back and not accept longer papers? He can and he probably will. But by then the term will be half over and the damage done. Grade fever is highly contagious and not easily reversed. Besides, the professor's main concern is with his course. He knows his students only in relation to the course and doesn't know that they are also overexerting in their other courses. Nor is it really his business. He didn't sign up for dealing with the student as a whole person and with all the emotional baggage the student brought from home. That's what deans, masters, chaplains, and psychiatrists are for. To some extent this is nothing new: a certain number of professors have always been self-contained islands of scholarship and shyness, more comfortable with books than with people. But the new pauperism has widened the gap still further, for professors who actually like to spend time with students don't have as much time to spend. They also are overexerting. If they are young, they are busy trying to publish in order not to perish, hanging by their fingernails onto a shrinking profession. If they are old and tenured, they are buried under the duties of administering departments — as departmental chairmen or members of committees — that have been thinned out by the budgetary axe. Ultimately it will be the student's own business to break the circles in which they are trapped. They are too young to be prisoners of their parents' dreams and their classmates' fears. They must be jolted into believing in themselves as unique men and women who have the power to shape their own future. â€Å"Violence is being done to the undergraduate experience,† says Carlos Horta. â€Å"College should be open-ended; at the end it should open many, many roads. Instead, students are choosing their goal in advance, and their choices narrow as they go along, it's almost as if they think that the country has been codified in the type of jobs that exist — that they've got to fit into certain slots. Therefore, fit into the best-paying slot. † â€Å"They ought to take chances. Not taking chances will lead to a life of colorless mediocrity. They'll be comfortable. But something in the spirit will be missing. † I have painted too drab a portrait of today's students, making them seem a solemn lot. That is only half of their story: if they were so dreary I wouldn't so thoroughly enjoy their company. The other half is that they are easy to like. They are quick to laugh and to offer friendship. They are not introverts. They are unusually kind and are more considerate of one another than any student generation I have known. Nor are they so obsessed with their studies that they avoid sports and extra-curricular activities. On the contrary, they juggle their crowded hours to play on a variety of teams, peform with musical and dramatic groups, and write for campus publications. But this in turn is one more cause of anxiety. There are too many choices. Academically, they have 1,300 courses to select from; outside class they have to decide how much spare time they can spare and how to spend it. This means that they engage in fewer extracurricular pursuits than their predecessors did. If they want to row on the crew and play in the symphony they will eliminate one; in the '60's they would have done both. They also tend to choose activities that are self-limiting. Drama, for instance, is flourishing in all twelve of Yale's residential colleges as it never has before. Students hurl themselves into these productions — as actors, directors, carpenters, and technicians — with a dedication to create the best possible play, knowing that the day will come when the run will end and they can get back to their studies. They also can't afford to be the willing slave for organizations like the Yale Daily News. Last spring at the one hundredth anniversary banquet of that paper whose past chairmen include such once and future kings as Potter Stewart, Kingman Brewster, and William F. Buckley, Jr. — much was made of the fact that the editorial staff used to be small and totally committed and that â€Å"newsies† routinely worked fifty hours a week. In effect they belonged to a club; Newsies is how they defined themselves at Yale. Today's student will write one or two articles a week, when he can, and he defines himself as a student. I've never heard the word Newsie except at the banquet. If I have described the modern undergraduate primarily as a driven creature who is largely ignoring the blithe spirit inside who keeps trying to come out and play, it's because that's where the crunch is, not only at Yale but throughout American education. It's why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age. I tell students that there is no one â€Å"right† way to get ahead — that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination. I tell them that change is a tonic and that all the slots are not codified nor the frontiers closed. One of my ways of telling them is to invite men and women who have achieved success outside the academic world to come and talk informally with my students during the year. They are heads of companies or ad agencies, editors of magazines, politicians, public officials, television magnates, labor leaders, business executives, Broadway producers, artists, writers, economists, photographers, scientists, historians — a mixed bag of achievers. I ask them to say a few words about how they got started. The students assume that they started in their present profession and knew all along that it was what they wanted to do. Luckily for me, most of them got into their field by a circuitious route, to their surprise, after many detours. The students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not pre-planned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to nudge them down some unforeseen trail.

Case Analysis About E Commerce Law

I. Introduction: In this age of mobile phone shopping, online bookings, web based promotions and social networking, legitimate business transactions and permit applications can now be served via the internet. As early as June, 2000, the Philippine government through the Senate and the House of Representatives approved the E-Commerce Law in recognition of the vital role of information and communications technology (ICT) in nation-building. Known as the â€Å"Electronic Commerce Act of 2000† or House Bill No. 971, the act was passed because of the need to create an information-friendly environment which supports and ensures the availability, diversity and affordability of ICT products and services that provides for the recognition and use of electronic transaction and documents in the country. The bill likewise recognizes the responsibility of the private sector in contributing investments and services in telecommunications and information technology as well as the need to devel op appropriate training programs and institutional policy changes.The House Bill also took cognizance of the human resources involved in the use of ICT, the population capable of operating and utilizing electronic appliances and computers and its obligation to facilitate the transfer and promotion of adaptation of these technologies. But, in order to ensure network security, connectivity and neutrality of technology for the national benefit, information infrastructures comprised of telecommunication networks and information services shall be organized and deployed.E-commerce is a system that includes not only those transactions that center on buying and selling of goods and services to directly generate revenue, but also those transactions that support revenue generation, such as generating demand for those goods and services, offering sales support and customer service, or facilitating communications between business partners. II. Reaction and Analysis of every provision: Declarati on of Policy Section 1 : Short title It names the title of the act which is known as the â€Å"Electronic Commerce Act of 2000†Section 2:   Ã‚  Declaration of Policy. Reaction and Analysis: This provisions explains the content of the policy, which creates an environment friendly to promote the ICT products and services in an affordable way so that it can develop the training programs, policy of institutions, human resources, the labor force, the operations of electronic appliances especially the computer system. It promotes also the technology so that the network security and the connections of technology in the country will be safeguard or protected.It gives benefits to the nation in terms of organizing the arrangement of the country’s information infrastructures and the understanding between communication networks and information services which connects to the global network in a legal act on its systems and facilities. In my opinion the declaration of the policy h as an advantage in our country because it makes the business industry with the use of ICT be a good transactions in global markets that helps our assets and profits increase, that’s a help for our country’s budget.Declaration of Principles for Electronic Commerce Promotion Section 3. Objective Reaction and Analysis: In this provision, It discusses the principles of the E commerce promotion which indicates the role of the government, every government official must be fair in giving shares and allowance in the lack of human resources and secure the common good, their settlements and goals should be done in the future and provide the necessities. The action of the private sector and in making the policy should be compromised.As the role of the private sector, the E commerce development must be widened in market forces and they must pursue a fair competitive market. The International coordination and harmonization will make the government policies that affect the e commerc e to be facilitated in a unified environment for good standards. In Neutral Tax Treatment, it will conduct the transactions in the use of e commerce that must take an unbiased or fair tax treatment in comparing transactions in non-electronic and taxation of e commerce and that must be guided in a least difficult manner.In the protection of the users, they must have privacy or not be exposed with regards to industry led solutions, it shall be agreed with the law that business must be available to the consumers and the business users must not have a disclosure to the public and environment. E commerce awareness points to the government and the private sector, they will inform the society about the ability of the e commerce and the impact of it in economic foundations. The government will provide opportunities to SMES, well it will provide investments in information technologies and encourage capitals for them.The government will also provide skills development for the employees genera ted with e commerce but they should still promote non or formal skills development programs. They will also provide online database for health services, public libraries, in this case I think it will be easier for us to find our needed information. Internet users will have an essential voice in the governance of the domain name system as well as the access to public domain information.All of the principles is informative and useful in a way that our country will have an easier work and life because of technology and a good contribution to our economy. Chapter III – Objective and Sphere of Application Section 3: Objective Reaction and Analysis: In this provision, it discusses the main goal of the law, which pursues a domestic and international dealings and agreements with the storage of information through the use of electronic technology so that the electronic documents of activities will be authenticated.The act also promotes the usage of electronic transactions in governmen t and public to worldwide. Despite these aims and objectives, many are still skeptical on the methods provided under the law to ensure the integrity and security of these electronic transactions. Most of them question the admissibility and weight given to electronic evidence, its authenticity and integrity as well as the manner used to verify the same, and the impact of its legal recognition on the Philippine legal system. Section 4. Sphere of ApplicationIn this section, this act must apply to any kind of electronic data message and document that is utilized in the occurrence of commercial and non commercial activities like what the section 4 stated, which are to include domestic and international transactions. In this section, it tells that the objective of the law must have a good practice and it should be used not only stating these aims but should become true. PART II ELECTRONIC COMMERCE IN GENERAL Chapter I – General Provisions Section 5: Definition of TermsIn these prov ision, it discusses the definitions of terms. The Addressee is a person who is intended by the originator to receive the electronic data message or electronic document, but does not include a person acting as an intermediary with respect to that electronic data message or electronic document. Commercial Activities must be given a wide interpretation so that it will cover the matters from the relationships of a commercial either contractual or not. It refers to the dealings with the rights of intellectual property.It also discussed the definition of computer where in it’s the main source of e commerce activities that provide connecting transactions and databases. I also learned about the convergence where in it is the ability of different network platforms to carry any kind of service; and the coming together of consumer devices. The Electronic data message explained that it is also an interchange with electronic document where in there are information stored by means of elect ronic. The ICT, it a system that is used for processing electronic documents as well as recording the data.Electronic signature refers to any distinctive mark, characteristic and/or sound in electronic form, representing the identity of a person and attached to or logically associated with the electronic data message or electronic document or any methodology or procedures employed or adopted by a person and executed or adopted by such person with the intention of authenticating or approving an electronic data message or electronic document. Electronic key refers to a secret code, which secures and defends sensitive information that crosses over public channels into a form decipherable only by itself or with a matching electronic key.This term shall include, but not be limited to, keys produced by single key cryptosystems, public key cryptosystems or any other similar method or process, which may hereafter, be developed. Intermediary refers to a person who in behalf of another person and with respect to a particular electronic data message or electronic document sends, receives and/or stores or provides other services in respect of that electronic data message or electronic document. Non-Commercial Activities are those not falling under commercial activities.Originator refers to a person by whom, or on whose behalf, the electronic data message or electronic document purports to have been created, generated and/or sent. The term does not include a person acting as an intermediary with respect to that electronic data message or electronic document. Person means any natural or juridical person including, but not limited to, an individual, corporation, partnership, joint venture, unincorporated association, trust or other juridical entity, or any governmental authority.Service provider refers to a provider of online services or network access. With help of definitions and terms, it is easier to understand what is e commerce all about and what are the relations of t hese terms to this law, because the law always pertains to electronic people, activities so by this explanation, we will be clarified with the content of the law. Chapter II – Legal Recognition of Electronic Data Messages Legal Recognition of Electronic Data Messages and Electronic Documents Section 6: Legal Recognition of Data Messages Reaction and Analysis:In this provision, it says that every information in the form of electronic data message or document must be approved always in a legal purpose. It says that the person should provide a written information to another person in conversion to electronic data message or document. The non electronic form of data must meet the requirements of the provision of the information and must be the same as the form of electronic data message or document. The operation of the requirement of the law has no limit for the information to be displayed with time or location until a functional equivalent will be implemented.The functional equ ivalent, says that electronic documents can never be the same as paper type, they still have difference. But electronic documents can do the purpose of paper type of documents like for example as a record or database of information from the paper. So I think the electronic data message can hold the paper based document by the person who write, and its still different from each other because the original form of the information is in written form while the electronic data message are in computerized type.Sec 7 Legal Recognition of Electronic Documents Reaction and Analysis: In this provision, it discusses the electronic signatures that are now recognized to be equivalent to the signature of a person on a paper based document, it explains the procedures provided on it like a method used to indicate the party to enter to the electronic document that is needed for his approval through the electronic signature. It is appropriate for its purpose for the electronic document where in it was generated with any agreement.With this situation, It is needed to the said party so that it will go to the transaction with electronic signature while the other party will have an access to verify it and for them to decide to go again with the flow of transaction valid by the same process. Well this serves a good transactions of contracts with use of electronic signatures from person to another person. Sec. 8. Legal Recognition of Electronic SignaturesThis provision examined some important legal issues associated with electronic signatures. I think the government should come out with some legislation. There should be some kind of legislation that should be out in our country that says that electronic signatures are an acceptable form and can legally replace paper-based forms of signature. Then only we businesses may be thinking of using it. Sec 9 Presumption Relating to Electronic SignaturesIn this provision, it explains the electronic signature correlations, it means that this was connected by the person with the intention of signing in the approval of the electronic document but the person depending on the electronic documents finds or notices a defects wich the signature has no dependency will not be affixed. This means that when Person A’s signature is attached to a document, one may presume that it is A’s signature and that he was the one who signed it with the intention of signing or approving the same.I think this is right so as they can easily detect a person’s signature electronically. Section 10 Original Documents It explains that the law requires information to be maintained in its original form, the integrity of the electronic document from the time it was created in its final form is shown by aliunde which means it is an evidence clarifying a document but not deriving from the document itself, otherwise the information is has the ability to be displayed to the person whom it is to be presented. This means that it applies whet her the requirement is in he form of an obligation or the law simply provides consequences for the information not being presented or maintained in its original form. This provision of law will be a great help to those who go to court presenting electronic evidence. While the old prototype could only conceive of original document as being generally single, this covers the way for the existence of many originals as long as the provision’s criteria of integrity and reliability are met. Section 11: Authentication of Electronic Data Messages and Electronic DocumentsThis section explains that the electronic signatures must be validated by proof than a letter associated with an electronic data message or document in a security procedure. And it can detect errors or alteration of communication, The supreme court may adopt such authentication procedures, including the use of electronic notarization systems as needs, as well as the certificate of authentication on printed or hard copi es of the electronic documents or electronic data messages by electronic notaries, service providers and other certification authorities. It provides the rules on evidence.Prone to the different characters of electronic data messages vis-a-vis paper or other objects, authentication procedures will have to be different too. This law requires for electronic data messages to be authenticated by validating a claimed identity of a user, device, or information system. Electronic signatures are to be authenticated by proof that a symbol or character representing the person named t attached to or that an appropriate technology or security was used with the intention of authenticating or approving the electronic document. Section 12.Admissibility and Evidential Weight of Electronic Data Message or electronic document. In this section, it serves as a guide to a data message is allowed in evidence and to how much weight is to be given them . It says that there’s no rule shall render the data message that is not allowed on the sole ground that it is in electronic form or on the ground that it is not in the standard written form. Evidential weight is to be given such electronic document after assessing the reliability of the manner in which the originator was identified, and other relevant factors have been given due regard.Section 13,  Retention of Electronic Data Message or Electronic Document. In this provision, it explains that electronic data message or original form must remain usable for reference and it will maintain the format when it was sent or received, It makes us identify the originator, the addressee which was explained in section 6, it also indicates the time and date of the electronic data message. The person required to maintain the forms can do it in a different way by using the services of a third party. Like for example, the BIR, demands the retention of receipts for at least three years, so that they can audit it.The effect is that this can r elieve business corporations from having to keep the required documents in paper form. It would be a good way to access the receipts and easier to find. Section 14. Proof by Affidavit, This provision also matters in section 12 and 9, it will take for granted to establish by an affidavit given to the deponent. So that it would inform the deponent about the rights of parties. This is useful as the requirements may prove to be more demanding and set in one’s way. Section 15. Cross – Examination.In this section it discusses that in any statement contained in affidavits and shown in courts, are subject to the right of the person against whom the affidavit is executed so that it can test the accuracy and truth of the affidavit by cross-examination, which means the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. As I understand,the process of cross-examination is presumed to be necessary because most witnesses come forward to support one side or the other. In the case of the defense, a witness might omit certain information which the prosecution might find interesting or relevant.A prosecution witness might, likewise, omit information. Cross-examination ensures that the trial is fair, and that all information is truly out on the table. CHAPTER III. COMMUNICATION OF ELECTRONIC DATA MESSAGES OR ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS Section 16. Formation of Validity of Electronic Contracts. In this provision it says that a contract is a meeting of the minds and generally could take whatever shape or form, many of them are still afraid of that contracts entered into electronically may encounter some problems.Many transactions and other forms of trade are now conducted electronically. For example, most people will at least be familiar with, if not frequent users of, ATMs situated outside or inside banks. When a bank’s customer withdraws money or uses an ATM for other purposes, an electronic transaction takes place. More and more business is now done electronicall y, often with the parties never physically meeting each other. Online shops, for example, allow potential customers to browse, select and purchase goods without ever asking a salesperson for advice or assistance.Negotiations, giving quotes or submitting tenders for work may all be done electronically and indeed are. A great deal of information is now passed electronically within organizations and from one organization to another. This all raises a number of legal questions, specifically with regard to electronic contracts. Some of the most important issues include whether an electronic contract is valid, that is, whether it must comply with certain formalities, whether electronic signatures are admissible as evidence of intent and agreement, and what law applies to an electronic contract.Section 17. Recognition by Parties of Electronic Data Message or Electronic document. In this provision, it says that the originator and the addressee of an electronic data message or electronic doc ument, a declaration of will or other statement must not be denied legally, validity or enforceability solely on the ground that it is in the form of an electronic data message or electronic document. Section 18. Attribution of Electronic Data Message.This section says that of the originator if the originator him/herself sent it and it was sent by an information system programmed by or on behalf of the originator to operate automatically. The addressee is used to pertain an electronic data message or electronic document as well as the originator. The addressee must apply a procedure which the originator approved and as the addressee receives the electronic message which results from the action of a person, it will enable to access a method to identify electronic message or document on his own way.An electronic message is deemed to be sent by the originator of the message if it is sent by a person who has the authority to act on behalf of the originator in respect of that message or if the message is sent by an information processing system programmed by, or on behalf of the originator to operate automatically. The notion that one has to physically put pen to paper to sign a contract is now a thing of the past.A person who receives an electronic message is entitled to regard the message as being that of the originator except in instances where he has received notice from the originator that the message was not sent by him or the addressee knew or should have known that the message was not sent by the originator had he exercised reasonable care. Originator doesn’t include Intermediary. For example, Person A uses his yahoo account to send an email message to person B which is the addressee. Here, Person A is the originator & Yahoo is the intermediary. Person A is on vacation.During vacation he has turned his vacation responder on with the following message:â€Å"Thank you for your email. I am on vacation, will reply your mail as soon I get back†. He re, though person A has programmed an information system to operate automatically on his behalf. Still Person A is the â€Å"originator† in this case. Section 19. Error on Electronic Data Message or Electronic Document. In this provision, it explains that the transmission of electronic data message between the addressee and the originator that resulted in error, it will enter to the designated information system or which is not designated by the addressee for the purposes.Section 20. Agreement on Acknowledgement of Receipt of Electronic Data Message or Electronic Document. In this provision the originator has not agreed with the addressee that the acknowledgment of receipt of electronic record be given in a particular form or by a particular method, in any communication by the addressee will be automated or otherwise any conduct of the addressee, sufficient to indicate to the originator that the electronic record has been received. The originator has not agreed with the addre ssee that the acknowledgement be iven in particular method, an acknowledgement may be given by or through any communication by the addressee, automated or otherwise, or any conduct of the addressee, sufficient to indicate to the originator that the electronic data message or electronic document has been received. The originator has stated that the effect or significance of the electronic data message e or electronic document is conditional on receipt of the acknowledgement thereof, the electronic data message or electronic document is treated as though it has never been sent, until the acknowledgement is received.What exactly did the originator of the message intend to send? Under the Act, there is a presumption that the electronic message is what the originator intended to send, and the addressee can act on that presumption unless the originator can show that the addressee knew or should have known that the electronic message received was an error. Therefore parties to a commercial transaction have to take precautions to ensure that any messages to be sent contains accurate information and are indeed intended for the recipient.For example, Person A sends an email to Person B asking her that he would like to purchase a car and would like to know the prices of the cars available for sale. Person B in return sends person A catalogue of prices of the cars available for sale. Now this action of Person B is sufficient to indicate to person A (the originator) that his email (i. e. the electronic record) has been received by the addressee. Section 21.Time of Dispatch of Electronic Data Messages or Electronic Documents. In this provision, with regards to the issue of time of dispatch, an electronic message is deemed by the Act to be sent when it enters an information processing system outside the control of the originator. Therefore it would appear that the time of dispatch will be when a person clicks the ‘Send’ button when e-mailing or the ‘Buy/Pu rchase’ button on an online store.An electronic message is deemed to be received when the message enters the designated information system (where there is a designated system), for instance, when a message enters the inbox folder of an e-mail account, or where there is no designated system, when the addressee comes to know about the message. Where the parties agree or the originator requests that receipt of the electronic message is acknowledged, that message will be treated as though it has never been sent until the acknowledgment is received.If the method of acknowledgment has not been agreed by the parties, any acknowledgment (automated or otherwise) or any conduct of the addressee which is enough to communicate receipt, will suffice as acknowledgment. Example of this: Person A composes a message for person B. At exactly 12. 00 noon she presses the â€Å"Send† button. When she does that the message leaves her computer and begins its journey across the Internet. It i s now no longer in Person A’s control. The time of dispatch of this message will be 12. 00 noon. Section 22. Time of Receipt of Electronic Data Messages or Electronic Documents.This provision explains that the time of receipt of an electronic communication is the time when it becomes capable of being retrieved by the addressee at an electronic address designated by the addressee. The time of receipt of an electronic communication at another electronic address of the addressee is the time when it becomes capable of being retrieved by the addressee at that address and the addressee becomes aware that the electronic communication has been sent to that address. An electronic communication is presumed to be capable of being retrieved by the addressee when it reaches the addressee’s electronic address.Section 23. Place of Dispatch and Receipt of Electronic Data Messages or Electronic Documents. – How does one determine the location of dispatch and receipt of electroni c messages? The Act deems an electronic message to be sent from the originator’s place of business and received at the addressee’s place of business. If there is more than one place of business, it will be considered sent from the place of business that has the closest relationship with the transaction or in the absence of that, from the principal place of business.In circumstances where the originator or addressee has no place of business, it will be deemed sent or received, as the case may be, at the originator’s or addressee’s ordinary place of residence. Example of this is: person A has entered into contract with a US based company. Company has its server in Brazil. Even if the company has its mail server located physically in Brazil, the place of receipt of the order would be the company’s office in USA. Section 24. Choice of Security Methods. This provisions explains the choice of type or level of security for their own purposes is recognized in this section .But still, this is prior to rules and guidelines which government can declare in terms of e- commerce transaction security. In my opinion, security is perhaps one of the greatest concerns of the millions of users that routinely exchange data over the Web or store information in computers which may be accessed by unauthorized parties. The government should protect the confidentiality and integrity of data being transferred or stored, they need to develop a new standard which defines authenticated encryption mechanisms that provide an optimum level of security.PART III ELECTRONIC COMMERCE IN CARRIAGE OF GOODS Section 25. Actions Related to Contracts of Carriage of Goods. This provision explains that the law is designed to apply to actions on contracts related to carriage of goods. What is figured is that airway bills, bills of lading, receipts, sales, transfers of ownership, and other documents or papers related to carriage of goods by land, sea, or air may now be do ne electronically. For example, buying online gadgets through the net, it is by shipping procedures.Section 26. Transport Documents. In this provision, It follows therefore that electronic documents facilitated and transacted though online basis are as important and valid as that of actual use of paper documents. This is according to SEC. 26 under Transport Documents where the law requires that any action referred to contract of carriage of goods be carried out in writing or by using a paper document, that requirement is met if the action is carried out by using one or more data messages or electronic documents.In almost all electronic transactions, online orders are subject to a verification procedure conducted by the store for their protection as well as customers from credit card fraud or identity theft. This is a normal procedure to verify that the card owner or that order and that ship-to information are legitimate. This process rarely delays an order, and generally requires ei ther a simple call-back which can be done through phone calls or by fax messages. The B store for example stresses the importance of knowing what â€Å"bill-to nformation† on the checkout process means. The bill-to address is the address to which your bank mails your monthly credit card statement. The bill-to address you give the store must agree with the address that the card issuing bank has on file. Then, be sure to provide the correct information, even if the items are to be shipped to a different location. PART IV ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS IN GOVERNMENT Section 27. Government Use of Electronic Data Messages, Electronic Documents and Electronic Signature.In this provision, it says that the government must accept retentions and creations of electronic data messages or document like issues in permits, licenses and its approval form and issure receipts in the form of electronic. As well as the government business transactions and it is authorized to adopt rules and regulations in the form of electronic documents. In a short explanation all documents that they will create should be in the form of electronic documents or data messages and authorized by electronic signatures as well. Section 28.RPWEB Promote the Use of Electronic Documents or Electronic Data Messages in Government and to the General Public. In this provision, it explains that RPWEB’s role in the use of electronic documents or data messages. They must be the initial platform of the GII which stands for government information infrastracture to control the electronic online transmission and conveyance of government services to improve better technologies or kinds and electronic online wide area networks utilizing, but not limited to, fiber optic, satellite, wireless and other broadband telecommunications.To sum up, RB web’s major task is to . Interconnect all government offices and units, including schools, colleges and universities, government corporations, as well as those at t he local level, by authorizing the use of savings for Internet access, through any Internet Service Provider (ISP) in their area, to facilitate faster communication and data interchange in government. Interconnect all ISPs through Internet exchanges for greater connectivity among users in the country. Speed up implementation of the telephone roll-out programs, articularly in unserved areas in the country. So that our country will hava a better technology. Section 29. Authority of the Department of Trade and Industry and Participating Entities. In this provision, it enables the DTI to promote and develop electronic commerce as well as to promulgate rules and regulations, provide quality standards or issue certifications in the pursuance of this Act’s intentions. I was very pleased to see this attempt by the DTI to develop electronic commerce in our country.I believe that this act will be implemented for the economic future of the country; electronic commerce and the developmen t of new network-based public services is clearly set to become a major contributor to country’s economic growth over the next decade. The DTI has a very important role to play to ensure that the potential benefits for the public, for SMEs and for government can be realised promptly and in a safe manner. PART V FINAL PROVISIONS Section 30. Extent of Liability of a Service Provider.This provision explains the liablilities of the service provider, It exempts ISPs from liability if they can prove that they had no knowledge of the occurrence of the alleged act, and that they had taken sufficient steps to prevent a violation. However, the existing provision does not clearly prescribe liability limits of service providers. For example, if a person makes a representation to a service provider claiming copyright on the material available on the network, will the service provider be liable if he fails to take steps within a reasonable time to remove the infringing material from the ne twork?If the service provider fails to prevent infringement of copyright in the above circumstances, is the plea of not having knowledge of infringement still available to him? If the service provider removes the material from the network in pursuance to the representation made by a person which later on proves false, will the service provider be liable to the person whose material has been removed? The liability of service providers for copyright infringement must be made more explicit.The act must include sections that address the financial aspect of the transaction, and the relationship between an ISP and a third party, because this is vital to determining the identity of the violator. So that if any person with knowledge of the infringing activity, induces, causes, or materially contributes to the infringing conduct of another, the person can be made liable. In order to be exempt from liability, the act requires the service provider to exercise due diligence to prevent the commi ssion of copyright infringement.The Act does not provide the meaning of the term due diligence. If due diligence means policing each and every aspect of the Internet, it can lead to loss of privacy and can ultimately have a disastrous effect. There is a need for a consensus on the meaning of the term due diligence because the primary function of ISPs is to build the Internet, not to play the role of a policeman. If the behavior of an ISP is reasonable, then that ISP should not be held liable for each and every activity on the Internet as has been held by the court.Section 31. Lawful Access. In this provision, it explains that that access to an electronic file, signature or document shall be limited only to those that are authorized to possess and use it. Electronic keys used for identity and integrity may only be made available to another upon consent of the individual in lawful possession of the key. Section 32. Obligation of Confidentiality. This provision explains that those who obtain access to an electronic key, signature or document not to convey or share the same with another.These two sections are important in that it recognizes that these files are property of an individual and can be possessed only by another upon the consent of its owner. It further recognizes the privacy and personal nature of the key by obliging those who gets to possess it not to share it with others. In my own opinion, the person must receive the information in confidence. That means that he or she must be asked to treat the information as confidential or it must be obvious to him or her that the information is given in confidence.The best way to do that is to ask the person to sign a confidentiality agreement. That is not in itself enough. Precautions must be taken (and seen to be taken) to keep the information secret such as logging documents and disclosures, keeping materials under lock and key and extracting confidentiality agreements. Section 33. Penalties. – The fol lowing Acts, shall be penalized by fine and/or imprisonment, as follows: In this provision, issues in security and penalties are addressed in it.The violations are the ff: hacking, is any access in order to corrupt, alter, steal, or destroy using a computer or other similar information and communication devices, without the knowledge and consent of the owner of the computer or information and communications system. For example, an adolescent who would never consider picking someone's pocket or physically damaging someone else's property or home, might be quite willing to steal people's credit card numbers or destroy poorly protected business or government files, since files and credit card numbers are not tangible entities, and the damage is done anonymously.If the individual commits this violation he will have a fine of One Hundred Thousand pesos and imprisonment of 6 months to 3 years. Another violation is piracy, s the unauthorized duplication of an original recording for commerc ial gain without the consent of the rights owner. They will be punished by a minimum fine of One Hundred Thousand pesos (P 100,000. 00) and a maximum commensurate to the damage incurred and a mandatory imprisonment of six months to three years. In my opinion. Penalties like imprisonment are good example of punishing an individual who possess violations and crimes.Section 34. Implementing Rules and Regulations. In this provision, it explains that the DTI, Department of Budget and Management and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are empowered to enforced the provisions of this Act. Among others, the DTI is empowered to promulgate rules and regulations, as well as provide quality standards or issue certifications, as the case may be, and perform such other functions as may be necessary for the implementation of this Act in the area of electronic commerce.Failure to Issue rules and regulations shall not in any manner affect the executory nature of the provisions of this Act. In my opinion , it is necessary to develop rules and regulations especially in e commerce. We need rules for the settlement of disputes. They also need rules for the organization of their governments. Law is the set of rules that the government enforces through its police, its courts, and its other agencies. It is important to implement rules and regulations so that people can understand what e commerce is and what are the obligations toward this act.Section 35. Oversight Committee. In this provision, it explains that there shall be Congressional Oversight Committee composed of the Committees and Trade and Industry/Commerce, Science and Technology, Finance and Appropriations of both the Senate and House of Representatives which shall meet at least every quarter of the first two years and every semester for the third year after the approval of this Act to oversee its implementation.The DTI, DBM, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and other government agencies as may be determined by the Congressional Co mmittee shall provide a quarterly performance report of their actions taking in the implementation of this Act for the first three (3) years. Utilizing an oversight committee has several advantages. In my opininion, It is generally much more effective with forming and implementing a new rules and regulations. Also, since the oversight committee is a separate entity, access to classified information such as electronic data messages and documents can be controlled.Since experts are involved, uninformed bias is kept to a minimum. The oversight committee can also operate as a mediating body between the active organization and the public. In this role, the committee can help the public understand what e commerce rules and regulations by publishing reports that communicate the facts in ways the public can understand. The existence of an oversight committee can have an impact on the quality and fairness of fact-finding even before the committee gains access to the relevant information.Gove rnment entities must ensure the standard of their work is acceptable, especially because in the long run it will be more costly and time-consuming if they are forced to go back and correct mistakes when an oversight committee detects errors on the implementation of the act. Section 36. Appropriations. In this provision, It explains that the funds needed to provide the sections 27 and 28 will be charged on the savings of the General Appropriations Act of 2000 in the first year of the effectively of the act. And all the funds for the continuous implementation will be included in the General Appropriations Act.This is important to develop the electronic transactions between the government and to the public and like the section 27 said in order to transact the government business and/or perform governmental functions using electronic data messages or electronic documents, and for the purpose, are authorized to adopt and promulgate, after appropriate public hearings and with due publicat ion in newspapers of general circulation, the appropriate rules, regulations and I think there will be needed funds to implement this. Section 37.Statutory Interpretation. In this provision, it explains that Philippine law on e-Commerce was patterned after the â€Å"UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce† adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in 1996 the model law is intended to promote the harmonization and unification of international trade law and remove unnecessary obstacles to international trade caused by inadequacies and divergences in the law affecting trade as a result of the information technology revolution.The interpretation of this Act shall give due regard to its international origin and the need to promote uniformity in its application and the observance of good faith in international trade relations. The generally accepted principles of international law and convention and electronic commerce shall likewise be consid ered. Section 38. Variation of Agreement. In this provision, it explains that the variation of agreement is intended to apply not only in the context of relationships between originators and addressees of data messages but also in the context of relationships involving intermediaries.Thus, the provisions of it could be varied either by bilateral or multilateral agreements between the parties, or by system rules agreed to by the parties. However, the text expressly limits party autonomy to rights and obligations arising as between parties so as not to suggest any implication as to the rights and obligations of third parties. Section 39. Reciprocity. This section states that if the other party to a transaction comes from a country that does not grant the Filipino similar rights contained herein, he will not be allowed also to enjoy the benefits of this law's provisions.Section 40. Separability Clause. In this provision it states that any separable provision of this Act be declared unc onstitutional, the remaining provisions shall continue to be in force. To understand generally a separability clause is a clause often included in a legal document (as a contract) stating that invalidation of some sections or clauses in the document will not affect the validity of the remainder. Section 41. Repealing Clause. In this provision, all rules and regulations which are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act will be cancelled legally.Section 42. Effectivity. In this provison, it declares the effectivity of the act wher e in it shall be effective after its publication in the Official Gazette. Conclusions and recommendations: There is high need for such laws to be enforced in order to make sure the balance is maintained between selling and buying along with the right laws. So far the laws such as the limitation of the liability, indemnification, attorney fees, choice of law are the most used and vital ones to make sure that the deals and trading happen legally and gover ned by laws.The electronic buying and selling are the key features of this modern world and internet applications. The way of living is simplified to the core by the extensive and effective applications of the internet and the Ecommerce laws that govern these electronic trading. The modern world is reaping the multipurpose benefits of the internet and its worldwide applications to the maximum. The laws are the heart of any modern day trading or dealing that takes place because they set the way of business and the regulations of the business.When you make any electronic transaction, then you will have to go through the mandatory laws so that they occur under the legal patterns. The limitation of the liability and the choice of the law are vital laws that the ecommerce industry has to go through. As the days pass by, further more laws are going to be implemented in order to make sure the industry and the transactions are under control. Case Analysis about the E Commerce Law Kyle M. Es tanislao SOCULITA 301

The American Of American History - 1199 Words

Historical Foundation In the United States, before there was New England, there was New Spain; and before there was Boston, Mass., there was Santa Fe, N.M. The teaching of American history generally highlights the establishment and development of the British colonies in North America, their appearance as an independent nation in 1776, and the change of the United States from east to west. This action easily overlooks the fact that there was important colonization by Spain of what is now the American Southwest from the 16th century on. It also tends to disregard, until the Mexican War is talk about, that the whole Southwest, from Texas westward to California, was a Spanish-speaking territory with its own individual heritage, culture, and customs for several decades. The Spanish-speaking citizens of the United States who were combined into the country as a result of the Mexican War are called Mexican Americans. Their numbers have since enlarged as a result of immigration. 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