Asian Journal of Computing Updates and Trends

Asian Journal of Computing Updates and Trends
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Volume- II Issue-1 Year-2011

ST. ANNE MARY EDUCATION
SOCIETY
Asian Journal of Computing
Updates and Trends

ISSN-0976 9706
PUBLISHED BY ST. ANNE MARY PUBLICATION
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ADVISORY BOARD INTERNATIONAL
DR. MARIA FERNANDA DR. TONY ORME DR. STEVE OLIVER
DR.CHEY TAE DR. HENRY KAISER DR. VALERI KOVALENKO
DR. MATTHEW BOULTON DR. ALFRED NOBEL DR. KUNIO BUSUJIMA
DR. BILL ROSENBERG DR. HIROKO TAKEI DR. JIM CAVANAUGH
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ADVISORY BOARD NATIONAL
MAJ. GEN. DR. M. L. MADAN DR. A. S. RAO DR. BHAVNA AGARWAL
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DR. D. K. GAUTAM DR. D. PATHAK DR. H. S. SHYAM
PROF. RUPALI KUMAR DR. N. PANCHANATHAM DR. RUCHI SRIVASTAVA


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EDITORIAL BOARD
CHIEF EDITOR- DR. A. S. RAO
DR. MARIA FERNANDA DR. TONY ORME DR. STEVE OLIVER
DR.CHEY TAE DR. HENRY KAISER DR. ENN PAN
DR. MATTHEW BOULTON DR. ALFRED NOBEL DR. R. NACHIKATA
DR. KUNIO BUSUJIMA DR. ILA CHATURVEDI DR. SANJAY GUPTA
DR. BHAVNA AGARWAL DR. ANOOP PANT DR. VIPIN
DR. HEMANT SHARMA DR. K. S. THAKUR DR. P. K. GUPTA
DR. ATOM KHACHATRYAN MAJ. GEN. DR. M. L. MADAN
DR. VALERI KOVALENKO DR. RUBEN VARDANYAN

All copy rights reserve with St. Anne Mary Education Society published by Sister Concern St.
Anne Mary Publications

Corp. Offices
In UK- Crown Works,Wellington Road, Bilston West Midlands,UK
In India-B1/1, Sanjay Enclave, Bindapur Matiyala Road, Uttam Nagar, New Delhi-110059 INDIA.
In Australia-10, CLIFTON STREET CAMDAN PARK, S. A. 5038
Email : info@annemary.org
Email : editor@annemary.org

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Table of Contents
Title of paper Page No.
ETHICAL ASPECTS OF INTERNET BASED BANKING 05
By :- V.V.R.Raman and Veena Tewari
AN ANALYSIS OF E-COMMERCE SECURITY ASSURANCE DIMENSIONS IN
THE WEBSITES OF INDIAN ONLINE TRAVEL AGENTS
By :- Victor Anandkumar and M. Sunderrajan 19
POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS INTERVENTIONS ON MENTAL HEALTH OF
IT PROFESSIONALS IN BANGALORE
By :- B Rose Kavitha and Maya Salimath G 31

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
By :- Dinesh Chandra, P.M.Rewatkar, Sweta A. Kahurke, and Vijay D. Rughwani 38

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON WEP and WPA in IEEE 802.11(Wi-Fi)
By :- D.M. Gharge, S. V. Halse 49
E-CRM: A DRIVING FORCE FOR MAKING ONLINE EDUCATION AND
TRAINING BY TECHNICAL INSTITUTES - A SELF- SERVICE ACTIVITY
By :- Sharat Kaushik, Manpreet Kaur and Neeraj Chopra 59
A CASE ANALYSIS OF TELECOM INDUSTRY OF CHINA AND INDIA WITH
FOCUS ON CELLULAR SUBSCRIBER BASE
By :- Sk Samim Ferdows 69
SOFTWARE RELIABILITY FOR A RELIABLE SOFTWARE SYSTEM
By: - Babita and Naveen Verma 91
APPROACHES TOWARDS ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYBODY LEARNING
By : -Anju Sharma and Sonam Singh 101


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ETHICAL ASPECTS OF INTERNET BASED BANKING
By :- V.V.R.Raman and Veena Tewari
Abstract:

Issues of IT Ethics have recently become immensely more complex. The capacity to
place material on the World Wide Web has been acquired by a very large number of
people.
At the same time, once the initial reluctance to use the Internet and the World Wide Web
for commercial purposes had been overcome, sites devoted to doing business on the
Internet mushroomed and e-commerce became a term permanently to be considered part
of common usage. The assimilation of new technology is almost never smooth. As the
Internet begins to grow out of its abbreviated infancy, a multitude of new issues surface
continually, and a large proportion of these issues remain unresolved. Many of these
issues contain strong ethics content. As the ability to reach millions of people instantly
and simultaneously has passed into the hands of the average person, the rapid emergence
of thorny ethical issues is likely to continue unabated.

In this paper we have paid attention to the very essence of the ethics in economy, and
especially in banking. There is an always present dilemma between ethics and economy.
Nowadays the attention is much more dedicated to this topic, because the lack of ethics
norms in business operations produces great damage at the micro and macro level. More
than anything else the significance of ethics becomes apparent through establishing of
socially accepted ethical norms, affecting in consequence all aspects of life. In the present
study we shall try to explain the business ethics as a social responsibility of an individual
as well as of collective moral actions followed during all aspects of business activities up
to the point where they do not disturb business relations within the business system, as
well as within the wider surroundings.
Finally, in the conclusion of the study, the code of ethical principles is pointed out, the
application of which would establish a defensive mechanism in the field of ethical values
application.

Key words: business ethics, morals, ethical principles, ethical code, Ethics,
Proliferation, Issues.

Introduction:

The area of Information Systems (IS) ethics has received, deservedly, a fair amount of
attention in recent times. IS Professionals generally agreed that we need adequate ground
rules to govern the use of present day Information Technology (IT). We have also
recognized for many years the need to incorporate ethics into IS curricula [Couger, 1989,
Cohen & Cornwell, 1989]. Current mechanisms which attempt to make IS professionals


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and students more sensitive to the ethical concerns within IT and IS may, however, be too
tightly focused in terms of both issues and audience, especially in the light of the rapid
proliferation of Internet use.
To properly analyze the impact of the Internet on IS ethics; we would need to establish
the appropriate context. To this end, this paper explores several aspects of computer
ethics that are relevant to today's users of IT. For example, who are the people that need
to be educated on these issues? What are the issues, and what has been the impact of the
Internet on these issues? What are current attitudes, perceptions, and behavior in
situations involving computer ethics, and again, what is the effect of the Internet? Do we
have guidelines and codes that provide assistance for these ethical situations? What else
needs to be done to help address some of the problems in this important area?

The creator of ethics as a study of morality was the Greek philosopher Socrates (470-399
BC), who used ethics to define the terms of human virtues. The most important personal
values are: righteousness, courage, honesty, tolerance, goodness, sincerity and fairness. In
the field of ethics, Socrates and the entire Hellenic world saw the issue of goodness in
human life or "eudemonia", i.e. happiness, as the most important. Goodness is a human
characteristic and the greatest moral value. Socrates believed that virtue can be taught,
i.e. that virtue is knowledge. A man must know what good is in order to do well.
According to Socrates, knowing oneself is a prerequisite for happiness. Essentially,
happiness is being good.
Ethics as the study of morality examines the meaning and goals of moral norms and
establishes the criteria for moral evaluation. The main ethical terms include: morality,
goodness, conscientiousness, evil, freedom, happiness, love and virtue. Righteousness,
morality and economic rationality and self-interest frequently overlap and intertwine.

Defining "BUSINESS ETHICS":

Public attention has lately turned towards debates about business ethics, as the social
responsibility of the individual and the collective. The question arises as to whether
business has anything to do with the morality of the individual and the collective. Many
people deny the connection between ethics and business, believing that the place of
morality is within religion, while others perceive the interconnection between morality
and religion. Every business activity has certain things in common with morality and
moral actions of an individual or groups.
Business ethics has two basic dimensions of expression and demonstration:
Collective ethics and
Individual ethics.
Collective ethics includes the application of ethical principles in the management's
decision- making that refers both to external subjects and the environment and the ethical
relations within the business system itself. Individual ethics involves adherence to the
norms of customary business morality. If an individual has a deficit of ethical morality it
means that they put their interests before the collective and legal norms, and before the


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norms of customary business morality, which can damage the business climate.
Individual ethics is the basic element of group or collective ethics.
The lack of ethics destroys trust, and trust is a precondition for successful business
operations and development. Therefore, each segment of work and operations of a
business entity should respect ethical principles. All the employees in a company, from a
director to a doorman, should stick to ethical rules. In doing their job, they should always
bear in mind the general welfare. The respect of business ethics can be analyzed by
monitoring the obligations arising from such principles.

Role of Ethics in Banking:

Ontologism based on the concept of good as opposed to evil helps us define the banking
business from the point of view of ethics. The idea of awareness or conscience of the
need for banking products or services inevitably comes to mind. This simplified parallel
leads us to the conclusion that full awareness of and the related ethics about the
importance of banking products and services is imminent to all economies, regardless of
their economic development.
The basic ethical principles in banking are:
Principle of mutual trust is of special importance for successful functioning of the
business system. Important and valuable deals are very often contracted over the phone,
in the absence of witnesses, while the relationship between the participants is dominated
by the inviolable principle of mutual trust.
Principle of mutual benefit and interest means that none of the partners in a business
relationship should feel cheated;
Principle of good intentions is very important for business ethics and moral behaviour.
This principle means that there is no intention to treat the business partner in an immoral
way, whether it refers to deception, theft or some other undesirable way of treating a
business partner;
Principle of business compromise and business tolerance refers to the harmonization
of the conflicting interests of participants in the business process;
Principle of ethical improvement of business behavior represents the business
partner's readiness to accept the mistake that has been made as a result of his own actions.
He should admit the mistakes and respond in an appropriate way;
Principle of de monopolization of one's own position, because monopolistic behavior
on the market does not contain any ethical market value and
Principle of conflict between one's own interests refers to the inability to relate
common to personal interests, with simultaneous adherence to the same ethical values.
The violation of ethical principles in banking occurs when the lenders take too much risk,
trying to find a loophole that allows them to approve more loans. Strict adherence to the
law and regulations in the field of banking makes it possible to grant loans to all the
qualified clients in a fair way.


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The theoretical assumption that banks with higher capitalization rates and a better
liability structure can enter long-term credit arrangements with a higher risk level has
been empirically proven. It stems from the above that each bank should respect the
general and the specific principles in formulating its credit policy. Since banks are trying
to optimize their micro economy, they perform a significant macroeconomic function
through their activity.
The bank's non-objectivity is most evident when it comes to establishing accurate
information about the character of the debtor. Based on its subjective evaluation, the bank
makes conclusions about the debtor. This indicator is most obvious when it comes to
personal loans, and less obvious when it comes to corporate loans.
The analysis of every loan application requires one or several loans officers who have
contacts with the client, one or several analysts who evaluate the client's financial
abilities, a board for loan approval or a loan administrator who finally approves or rejects
the loan request.
By protecting themselves, the banks also protect the efficiency of using the macro
systems accumulation. In this way, the loss of banking and financial resources in the
macro system is restricted and the selective and allocate functions of the total system are
improved.
A bank is liable to run business books in compliance with the banking chart of accounts,
preparation of bookkeeping documents, evaluation of assets and liabilities, drafting of
financial statements in accordance with applicable regulations and professional standards
(the Central Bank may prescribe, for the purpose of public announcement, a type, form
and content of statements, method and deadlines for their publication). A bank must
organize the internal audit which should conduct its activities in an independent and
impartial manner, and contribute to the development of the bank's operations through its
advisory services. The internal audit of the bank's operations should conform to the
operating principles and business ethics code pertaining to internal auditors. In its work,
the internal audit should harmonize the methods of its work with the work of external
auditors.
The person in charge of internal audit tasks should not be involved in other activities
within the bank. If the internal audit unveils any case of illegal operation and violation of
the risk management rules in the course of its inspection of specific fields of bank
operations, it must promptly inform the bank's management thereof. If it fails to do so,
the bank is running the risk of becoming illiquid, insolvent and its operations insecure.

Banking business is attractive for illegal transactions only if the effectiveness of a
controlling mechanism for a consistent conformity with the operating principles is
missing. Continuous monitoring is a significant activity for banking operations, since the
very nature of this activity involves a rapid change along with innovations. In traditional
banking activities this problem is clearly seen, since some sort of records is kept on
transactions.
However, there is an obstacle in the e-banking domain, particularly in regard to detection
of illegal money transfer from an account to a card with a deposit amount.


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It is to be expected that a more extensive use of e-money will lead to an increasing
misuse of ethics. Even though banks, financial companies and clients gain multiple
benefits by using the e-banking system, at the same time the application of e-banking
jeopardizes the ethical domain, since it gives rise to increased cyber crime. Hackers
usually disrupt the operation of information systems and transfer financial funds to their
own accounts.
The most common targets of such criminals are ATMs. It is not to be neglected that
banking technology is getting better, but hackers also develop their skills to steal funds
from banks and thus undermine legitimate banking transactions.
In order to prevent the identity frauds, legislative institutions notify the clients that they
safeguard the sources of private information. Bankers should provide more detailed
instructions to clients to check the balance on their accounts at least once a month and to
report immediately any observed irregularity. Owing to the introduction of e-banking
services, clients can check their account balances on a daily basis. Electronic business is
possible to apply only if a mechanism for securing financial and other transactions on the
Internet is developed. By using encryption systems and digital certificates it is possible to
realize four basic functions of the transaction security, such as: confidentiality,
authentication, integrity and incontestability. The efficiency of such measures should be
proved by more extensive use of electronic money. The most important benefit of e-
business is that financial flows assume different profile, whereas the banks move their
desk operations to the clients' computers. Time will show whether we will reach
statistical figures from the developed west where more than 80% of transactions are
affected electronically.

Issues and Concerns: How theyve grown and changed: In everyday life, "Ethics is the
practice of making a principle-based choice between competing alternatives" [Kallman &
Grillo, 1996, p.3]. The issues in IS ethics would certainly fit comfortably within this
larger umbrella. We ought to be able to assume that to use IT ethically, a person would
first need to possess appropriate ethical standards for day to day living. It comes as a
surprise, therefore, that, that many people who consider themselves ethical have less
stringent standards when it comes to using computers and related technology [Solomon &
OBrien, 1990, Cohen & Cornwell, 1989].
Many people feel that using a computer to do something that is illegal or unethical is
somehow not as "wrong" as other "real" criminal or unethical acts. For others, the term
"IS ethics" refers just to issues of software piracy and unauthorized access to computer
systems. Neither perception is correct. Criminal or unethical acts performed with the help
of a computer are just as criminal or unethical. They usually just take less time or are
harder to trace. Ethical concerns in IT actually encompass much more than just software
piracy and computer hacking. Wood (1993) states that generalizations from many studies
on IS ethics have been limited because most studies have concentrated solely on software
piracy problems rather than a broader definition of IS ethics. Malone (1993) argues that
ethical concerns in IS must go beyond behaviors that are considered illegal. He includes
such topics as computer crime, software reliability, privacy and matching, employee


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displacement, and artificial intelligence. Hall and Hamilton (1992) find the issues even
more extensive. In their recommendations on the ethical concepts that should be
integrated into the MIS curriculum they include the issues of privacy, security, ownership
of property, race, equity in access, the environment, internal control responsibility of IS
personnel, misuse of computers, artificial intelligence and unemployment and
displacement. In their discussion of what constitutes unethical computer use, Kallman
and Grillo (1996) include social and economic issues, issues of individual practice,
development process issues, issues involving managers and subordinates, processing
issues, issues relating to the workplace, issues of data collection, storage, and access,
issues about electronic mail, resource exploitation issues, vendor-client issues and issues
of computer crime.
The rapid growth of Internet access and use seems to have made many of these issues
more significant and pervasive. This growth has also spawned a host of new issues.
Issues involving intellectual property rights, ownership of data, copyright laws and
violations, and plagiarism now affect millions of people rather than just a few. From
perhaps an opposing standpoint come the issues of free speech and censorship.

There is reason to believe that the ethical management of IT poses some special
difficulties as well. For instance, information created and stored using IT is more easily
altered, destroyed or accessed without authority or permission. Privacy, unauthorized
access, and the theft of information become increasingly relevant concerns. Also, the use
of computers and technologically advanced communications equipment changes the way
people communicate with each other. Personal, face to face contact is reduced, decisions
are made more quickly and less thoughtfully, and the potential for unethical use is
increased simply because not enough time is devoted to careful consideration of all the
ramifications of a particular act. Information sharing often conflicts with concerns of
confidentiality and privacy, and the lack of access security can often make unethical use
far too easy.
The interaction of people with this new technology can create problems too. Because the
tremendous growth in computing power has been coupled with a similar decline in costs,
many more people today have ready access to enormous quantities of information and the
inexpensive means to manipulate it. Even a decade ago, the situation was dramatically
different and far less hazardous. The potential for unethical computer use has increased
along with this growth in accessibility [Kallman & Grillo, 1996].

Information Technology and Codes of Ethical Behavior:

Codes of behavior for IS professionals have been in existence since the 1960's. Why then,
the sudden fuss over IT ethics? Several factors have contributed to the situation. First, the
growth in technology, its complexity and its use, including access to the Internet, has
been unprecedented.
Ethical codes developed even a decade ago can't possibly address the bewildering range
of possible situations involving ethical conflict. Second, because technology use is so


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pervasive, the majority of the people who should be targeted by these codes of conduct
do not belong to the professional organizations that developed them. In fact, many IT
professionals do not belong to any professional organizations.
As a result, much of the audience remains untouched. Third, different organizations for
IT professionals have different codes and guidelines. Although most have similar
objectives, the treatment of these objectives differs from one organization to the next.
Even if an IT professional were to belong to a particular organization, the standards by
which he or she would be expected to live and work by would be different from those
adhered to by a member of a different organization. There is no single set of widely
accepted codes and guidelines for ethical decision making [Oz, 1992]. Finally, a code of
ethical standards is not the law although most codes of ethics do incorporate sanctions to
deal with misconduct. Although legislation to deal with a variety of computer and
technology related crimes has been enacted, statutes fall far short addressing potential
wrongdoing.

In a call for a unified ethics code for IT professionals, Oz (1992) examined the
differences between the ethical codes of 5 organizations for IS professionals. The study
found similarities as well as differences between these codes when examined in a
framework of obligations to society, employers, clients, colleagues, the professional
organization and the profession. One flaw in all 5 sets of standards was a lack of
guidelines for prioritizing ethical conflicts. A unified code, the study concluded, would
better serve IT professionals and would enhance public perception of the profession.
Business does not operate isolated. Inevitably, their activities have social and ecological
consequences. Maybe the ecological impact of financial activity is not easily seen, but we
have to recognize a possible indirect impact through the financing of certain economic
activities. Therefore, to answer to the new social demands, many banking institutions
apply 'ethical policies' that have to do with the bank working inside and then, with bank
investments. A business can take financing from the bank only when no conflict with the
ethical policy is identified (so that, some investment opportunities shall be declined by
the bank).
The following are examples of how the customer's money should or should not be
invested:
* Human Rights: Not to invest or provide financial services to any regime or organization
that oppresses the human spirit or takes away the rights of the individual.
* Armaments: Not to invest in or provide financial services to any business involved in
the manufacture, sale, licensed production, or brokerage of armaments to any country
which has an oppressive regime.
* Trade and social involvement:


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To support and encourage:
* Organizations that promote the concept of Fair Trade.
* Businesses, customers, and suppliers to take a pro-active stance on ethical sourcing
with any Third World suppliers they may use.
* Organizations participating in the UK social economy (cooperatives, credit unions, and
charities).
To be sure not to finance activities, such as:
* Money laundering, drug trafficking, or terrorism
* Investments and currency trading in developing countries which does not support
productive purposes
* Tobacco product manufacturers.
* Ecological impact: To encourage business customers to take a proactive stance on the
environmental impact of their own activities and not to invest in businesses involved in
activities, such as:
* The extraction of fossil fuels, which contribute to problems, such as global climate
change and acid rain.
* The manufacture of unnatural chemicals that may contribute to problems, such as ozone
depletion.
* The unsustainable harvest of natural resource that leads to deforestation.
* Animal welfare: Not to invest or provide financial resources to organizations involved
in activities, such as:
* Animal testing of cosmetic and households products or their ingredients
* Exploitative factory farming methods
* Blood sports that involve the use of animals or birds to catch, fight, or kill each other.
* Fur farming and animal fur trading


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* Customer consultation: Banks regularly appraise views of the customers on precedent
issues to develop the Ethical Policy accordingly.
The previous examples were examples of how modern banks have to go about their
business in a profitable but ethical manner. Banks also have to be flexible when
integrating social changing values. This process has to be public, open, and supervised by
external social auditors in order to maintain and strengthen trust, which is an essential
value for banks and financial systems to perform well.
Summary and Conclusions:

The number of people touched by and affected by this technology is enormous and is
growing rapidly, especially with the increased availability of the Internet. This makes a
target audience difficult to define and difficult to reach. The ethical issues themselves are
also difficult to define, increasingly complex and diverse, and are growing as rapidly as
the technology. Attitudes, perceptions and behavior among users of this technology leave
much to be desired. Codes of ethics and professional conduct vary from one professional
organization to the next and are incomplete or obsolete. In addition, membership in these
organizations makes up only a minuscule part of the relevant audience. Classes in
computer ethics, when part of an IS or IT curriculum, don't appear to make much of an
impact and reach only a small proportion of students who use IT.
Obviously, the importance of IS ethics cannot be overstated in the age of the Internet.
There are too many people involved for us to remain unconcerned. It is probably not
possible to develop comprehensive ethical guidelines to cover every possible situation of
IT misuse. It is possible, however, to realize the pervasiveness and the magnitude of the
problem. It is also possible to develop ethical guidelines on an ongoing basis to keep pace
with changes in the issues. Finally, it is vital that these guidelines be a part of all school
and college curricula rather than just IT related disciplines.
Any culture and any country have a ready supply of stories and adages for teaching
children the values of society. As Americans, we have a full supply of adages ranging
from "honesty is the best policy" to "the early bird gets the worm." These adages were
designed to teach children the values of society. "Mother Goose" and "Grimm's Fairy
Tales" taught children about proper behavior - and what would happen to children who
didn't behave. Ben Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac" was a uniquely American tool
for teaching values such as honesty, hard work, and generally making some form of
contribution to the corporate good.

Now, however, we as a society have lost sight of the original messages or changed for
ourselves what they mean. "The early bird gets the worm" was advice to get up, get
going, and work hard. Now, however, getting that worm - no matter what or how - seems
to be the only part of that message that survives. As a society, we have become focused
on winning. The American legends are those who came to the country as paupers and


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became very, very rich.

However, leaving aside such blatant examples of unethical behaviour, even the most well
meaning of banks are going to confront moral dilemmas in the course of business. These
dilemmas are more complex than the simple: "should I lie, cheat or steal variety?" They
pose difficult choices that have the potential to damage reputation and lead to financial
losses. The problem is that in an increasingly complex business environment the choice is
not always the simple one between what is right and wrong. It is more often between
what is right and less right - in other words between shades of grey. This increases the
need for organisations to adhere to a strong set of values to steer them through the
minefield of ethical choices with which they are faced as they make business decisions. It
is also necessary to ensure that the behaviour of the organisation is in practice aligned
with these values and that employees buy into them, so that the organisation actually
practices what it preaches.
Some of the practical examples of ethical dilemmas involving banks that have been in the
news recently are, as banks reach out beyond their home market, they become exposed to
unfamiliar business environments and customers whose ethical standards may be very
different from their own. This puts extra strain on the "know your customer" policy upon
which regulators are so insistent. Business dealings with Russia are a case in point. Here
you have the situation of a country that is making the transition from a communist to a
capitalist economy. This naturally creates profit opportunities for Western banks. It could
indeed almost be argued that these banks have a moral responsibility to assist in
transforming the Russian economy. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, this
transformation has gone wrong, and the borderline between what is legitimate and
illegitimate business in Russia has become blurred, to say the least.
Ethics is a set of moral values and principles related to society. The application of ethical
principles contributes to the attainment of financial moral. The domination of ethical
principles implies the elimination of criminal operation of commercial banks, i.e. less
frauds, bribery, and corruption. Given that economy cannot successfully function in the
absence of ethics and morals, the necessity of introducing ethical code is frequently
advocated.
In the banking sector, the business ethics principles would be implemented in an
organized fashion, aided by normative and legal regulation in the field of bankers'
business activities. The application of the code of ethical principles would establish a
defensive mechanism in the area of application of ethical values since the position of a
particular profession requires more stringent moral standards and involves sanctions for
the breach of the same. In developed countries, the issue of ethics is closely attended to.
In each profession there is an ethical moral code of behaviour. Such moral norms are
established and applied in order to govern internal relations and the relations with other
groups.


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The adoption of ethical standards in the form of a code of appropriate conduct could
contribute to understanding broader community. To that end, it is necessary to do the
following:
Ethical standards should be formalized in regulations. The law and other regulations
may provide a framework for advisory, reprimanding measures and other restrictions.
Professional ethics-related advice contributes to moral reasoning. An unbiased advice
alone can contribute to the resolution of ethical dilemmas.
An adequate responsibility mechanism should be established. In case of a violation of
ethical principles, a formal chain of responsibility should be established. There should be
clear rules and procedures to be followed by the officers.
Bank managers should serve as role models for ethical behaviour and professionalism.
Consequently, they have a leading role since they promote ethical behaviour. Policy and
practice pursued by managers should underscore bank's commitment to ethical principles.
Usually moral conscience has been forgotten after the individualist and utilitarian
analysis. However, many people guide their behavior by a value system that is sensitive
to social problems, such as equilibrium with nature, respect of human rights, and the
equality of opportunities. People have the power to change the society: As consumers and
as savers. As savers, people have the opportunity to choose, in financial markets, between
institutions and products.


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REFERENCES:
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Akerlof, G.A. "Social Distance and Social Decisions," Econometrica, 65, 5, 1997.

Camino, E. Etica de la especulacion financiera, Madrid: Union Editorial, 2004.

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Diez Nicolas, J. La escala de posmaterialismo como medida del cambio de valores en las
sociedades contemporaneas, 1998. http://www.worlvaluessurvey.org.


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Elster, J. "Emotions and Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Literature, XXXVI,
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An analysis of e-commerce security assurance dimensions in
the websites of Indian Online Travel Agents
By :- Victor Anandkumar and M. Sunderrajan
Abstract:
Travel is the biggest segment of the e-commerce domain in India, as well as on a global
platform. Therefore it is vital that travel e-commerce sites are secured to ensure safe
transactions for customers. Yet little research has gone into what Online Travel Agents
(OTAs) are doing to incorporate consumer assurances into their sites. To address this
gap, this research has identified 18 Indian OTAs to see how many carried e-commerce
assurance seals and of what typesprivacy, security or business integrity. The research
also looked for associations between OTA characteristics (such as traffic rank to suggest
online popularity and years since incorporation to differentiate first movers and late
entrants) and the presence of these seals. The findings highlighted a preference for
security assurance than privacy or business integrity assurance. The implications of the
findings for OTAs are discussed.

Keywords: Travel e-commerce, OTAs, e-commerce security, security assurance

Introduction

India's e-commerce market is increasing at the rate of 42-50 per cent CAGR, which is set
to continue in the same manner in the next five years (2008-13) and travel (including
hospitality) is the major contributor to this growing segment (ExpressHospitality.com,
2008). Travel is the biggest segment of the e-commerce domain in India, as well as on a
global platform. Therefore it is vital that travel e-commerce sites are secured to ensure
safe transactions for customers.

The overwhelming response of the consumers towards the online travel segment was
triggered by the entry of low cost carriers (LCCs) such as Air Deccan (now Kingfisher
Red), IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir. Also, IATA (an air travel regulatory agency) had set
2008 as the deadline for e-ticket rollout. As a result, the industry saw an upsurge of
bricks-and-mortar and brick-and-clicks tour operators and emergence in the pure-clicks
travel aggregators and online travel agents (OTAs). The industry has since then witnessed
an increase in the number of travelers as well as number of travels per traveler. However,
the biggest issue facing this industry is limited penetration of credit cards, coupled with
consumers apprehensions towards online security and privacy issues. If travel e-
commerce is to live up to its full potential, OTAs must gain an understanding of which
risks online customers are most concerned with as well as what specific steps can be
taken to help reduce such risk perceptions by making security assurances (Garbarino and
Strahilevitz, 2004).


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Travel-Tourism and Internet made for each other

Many studies have highlighted the fit between the Internet and the travel and tourism
industry. Tourism products appear to be well suited to e-marketing because of their
distinctive high-priced, high-involvement, intangible, heterogeneous, high-risk and well-
differentiated characteristics [Peterson et al, 1997, Smith and Jenner, 1998, Anandkumar
and Jeyakumar, 2007]. The nature of the travel-tourism product being information-centric
makes it a search product that is evaluated by perusing product-related information.
Being dependent upon effective information flows makes it a complex product, as it
needs to be distributed and made available to both intermediaries and end consumers
and is almost entirely dependent upon representations and descriptions, provided by the
travel trade to help consumers make a purchase decision (Buhalis, 2003).

The Online Travel Agents (OTAs) market

Dominated by players like MakeMyTrip.com and Yatra.com, the Indian OTA market is
hot and happening. In the recent years, the Indian online travel portal market has seen a
lot of action - new players have emerged, VC investments have been made, aggressive
online marketing campaigns have been undertaken and now even several international
players (such as Travelocity and Orbitz) have entered the Indian market. As a result, an
all out race to get the biggest market share in the fastest growing e-commerce sector in
India is on. The international OTA market is dominated by firms like Travelocity,
Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and so on.

Barriers and inhibitors to travel e-commerce

Studies probing the intention of the customers in B2C e-commerce context have lead to
identifying the motivations and inhibitions of the users. The most frequently cited reasons
for not purchasing travel products online are, in the order of precedence: credit card
security, no assessment of product quality, privacy issues and rather purchase locally
(Weber and Roehl, 1999). Previous research (Jarvenpaa et al. 2000; Reichheld and
Schefter, 2000; McCole and Palmer, 2002; Gefen et al. 2003) has proposed that one of
the most important reasons for not using an online channel for purchasing is the lack of
trust: unfamiliar vendors as well as insecurity of transactions and personal information.
Discussion has focused mainly on security of transactions, privacy of customers personal
information and general trust in the vendor of whom the customer has not any prior
experience (Anandkumar, 2008).

Prior research on travel e-commerce security assurance

Assurance is the degree of confidence that security measures, both technical and
operational, work as intended or planned. Information assurance aims to improve the


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quality or state of being secure at situations where the consumer is not quite familiar with
the background of a business (Colwill et al. 2001). Runyan et al. (2008) examine the
impact of Web assurance services on e-commerce. They conclude that doing business
online has become a necessity, not an option. However, not all consumers are completely
comfortable using the Internet for transacting business because of concerns regarding
security of their transactions. For these situations, consumer trust and confidence can be
enhanced by web assurance services. Pathak (2004) examines risk associated with e-
commerce. His study concludes that e-commerce requires auditors to identify risks and
show their impact on the information system and suggests the American Institute of
CPAs and Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants Web assurance programs.

The most widely used computer security model is the CIA (confidentiality, integrity and
availability) triangle framework (Parker, 1994) which addresses the fundamental
concerns regarding the vulnerability of information security. Sivasailam et al. (2002)
have developed six web assurance dimensions: security, transaction integrity,
authenticity, privacy compliance, business integrity and financial settlements.

Assurance seal services are based on the idea of making the vulnerable entity (the
consumer) more comfortable with the transaction and ensuring that the other (the
company) follows through on its promises. The purpose of assurance seals is to provide
assurance to consumers that a website discloses and follows through with its operating
practices, that it handles payments in a secure and reliable way, that it has certain return
policies, or that it complies with a privacy policy that says what it can and cannot do with
the collected personal data (Koreto, 1997; Castelfranchi and Tan, 2001).

E-commerce security assurance concerns

Every third-party assurance service must satisfy certain concerns of e-commerce security.
Although the AICPA-Yankelovich (1997) study identified six e-commerce security
assurance dimensions, viz., cluster security, transaction integrity, authenticity of parties,
business integrity, financial settlements and privacy compliance, standard industry
practices tend to cluster security, transaction integrity, and authenticity of parties into one
overarching area - security. Business integrity and financial settlements combine to form
the business integrity area, and privacy compliance forms the third area, privacy.

Privacy Assurance Services:

TRUSTe and BBB Online were among the first providers of privacy assurance in e-
commerce. As first movers, they may be vulnerable to traditional competitors (CA/CPA
firms) who have proven reputations and expertise in the assurance business. The ability to
develop high quality standards and proven reputations for independence are key attributes
that could give CA/CPA firms a competitive advantage. These two programs have similar
requirements. To be eligible for a TRUSTe license, websites must comply with its


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principles of the privacy program (http//www.TRUSTe.com). User right to choice and
consent over how their personal information is used and shared is one of these principles.
Other principles concern the posting of a privacy policy, and disclosure about the
collection and use of personal information, use of cookies, and third parties using cookies
to collect data on the website. TRUSTe monitors its licensees compliance with their own
posted privacy policies and the TRUSTe program requirements. The oversight processes
include initial and periodic website reviews, seeding and online community monitoring.
TRUSTe also resolves privacy complaints and requires its licensees to cooperate with its
reviews and inquiries.

Integrity Assurance Services:

WebTrust and a related service by PWC (called PWC BetterWeb) offer assurance to
consumers about the integrity of transaction processing, ability of the website to provide
goods and services, sales terms, and handling of customer complaints. These items
provide some assurance to consumers that the website is an authentic business with some
ability to provide legitimate goods or services. This is however, quite incomplete because
it provides no assurance that controls are in place to monitor or prevent misbehavior by
outside agents.

Security Assurance Services:

VeriSign assurance seals are popular and they focuses specifically on security level
issues. The basic requirement for VeriSign are (1) third-party verification of the business
entitys registration information, (2) domain name confirmation, (3) export controls
confirmation in regard to encryption practices, and (4) use of VeriSigns products that
facilitate transmission of encrypted data and verification of parties involved in a
transaction. WebTrust is another comprehensive security assurance services. While most
of the other certifications are done on an annual basis, WebTrust must be renewed every
90 days. Three principles form the guiding framework: (1) business practices and
information privacy must be disclosed on-line and transactions must be executed as
prescribed, (2) transaction integrity (i.e. customer transactions are completed and billed
as agreed), and (3) the entity maintains effective controls over customers information
(Khazanchi and Sutton, 2001). OTA websites have also subscribed to the credit card
companies (such as Visa and MasterCard) for security validation service.

Research problem
Despite the fact that online travel sales are now a substantial and growing proportion of
total sales in one of the worlds largest industries and online trust is an important issue,
there still exists a lack of comprehensive literature on the OTAs and their security
assurance mechanisms. While some studies have focused on demand- and supply-side
constituents in this industry, little or no analysis has focused on the intermediaries such as


23 | P a g e

OTAs. The aim of this research is to identify the OTA websites in India and pose the
following research questions on them: What are the characteristics of OTA websites?
How do they assure customers of e-commerce security? What are the popular third-party
assurance seals popular among OTAs? Are there associations between OTA
characteristics and their security assurance mechanisms?
This research has certain limitations. First of all, the consistency of OTA websites across
different browsers was not studied. All the observations were made using Microsoft
Explorer (version 7) browser. Secondly, this study considered only third-party e-
commerce security assurance seals. And finally, the researchers subjectivity in data
observation and interpretation might have introduced data error. However, precautions
were taken to address these limitations. For example, the observation for data collection
was done independently by two observers and then compared to ensure commonality.

Research methodology
This is a descriptive study using passive primary data collected through structured
observation method. It studies the travel e-commerce security assurance measures among
the popular OTA websites by analyzing the third-party assurance seals. The objects of
observation were the websites of OTAs identified through judgment sampling with
certain inclusion/exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria implied that only the pure
clicks OTA websites offering air travel booking (wherein perceived risk and need for
security assurance are high because of the monetary value of the transaction) were
considered for this study. Bricks-and-clicks OTAs, OTAs offering only bus or train
tickets (such as redbus.co.in and irctc.co.in) were excluded from the study. Also travel
deal aggregators such as Rediff Faresearch were not considered since they permit only
online search and then redirect to the corresponding airlines booking engine to complete
the online purchase.

A comprehensive list of the URLs of Indian OTAs was prepared using organic search and
web traffic results (by determining online popularity using Alexa.com). Each URL was
verified and the 18 websites were evaluated. Table 1 lists the OTAs that were observed
for this study. Each site was examined in detail and the various e-commerce security
assurances given by the site were noted. To record the data collected through observation
method, a structured data entry table was designed. Each cell in the table represents a
dichotomous scale measurement describing the presence or the absence of an e-
commerce security assurance dimension. The assurance indicators across all the sites
were then grouped and analyzed.

Table-1. List of Online Travel Agents (OTAs) observed for the study
www.FlightRaja.com www.MakeMyTrip.com www.Yatra.com
www.TravelGuru.com www.ClearTrip.com www.arzoo.com
www.zoomtra.com www.AtYourPrice.in www.ixigo.com
www.ezeego1.com www.TripMela.com www.TravelChacha.com
www.indiatimestravel.com www.desiya.com www.sweetfare.com
www.90di.com www.bookngo.com www.timesofindiatravel.com


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Data analysis and findings
Sivasailam et al. (2002) have developed six web assurance dimensions: security,
transaction integrity, authenticity, privacy compliance, business integrity and financial
settlements. But the observation of OTAs in this study provided scope to identify one
more dimension, namely user-agreement compliance. Further observation of privacy
policies posted on the OTA website indicated a demarcation between intra- and inter-
organizational privacy compliance. The revised web assurance dimensions addressing the
three major customer concerns, viz. security, privacy and business integrity are shown in
Table 2. The issues addressed by them and the potential remedies are also highlighted.
For the purpose of data analysis, the OTAs were classified into early/late categories based
on their years of existence. The OTAs that are less than three-years old were considered
late and more than three-years old were considered early. The popular web traffic
measurement service, Alexa.com was used to find out the online popularity (in terms of
daily pageviews) of the OTAs and a cut-off of 0.001 daily pageview percent was used to
distinguish OTAs as high and low in popularity. The findings of the study relating the
OTA demographic characteristics (namely, years in existence and online popularity) with
the e-commerce security dimensions are summarized in Table 3.

Table-2. Dimensions of e-commerce security assurance
Customer
concerns
Assurance
Dimensions
Issue
Addressed
Potential
remedy
Security Transaction
Security
Unauthorized access
Distributed denial of
service attacks
Intrusion detection software
Firewalls, traffic management
software, back-up servers and
IP numbers, proper password
generation guidelines, prompt
application of software patches
and proxy servers
Security Transaction
integrity
Alteration/deletion/
duplication of docs
Diversion/nonreceipt
of docs
Software controls
Encryption, electronic receipts
for Sender
Security Authenticity
of parties to
transaction
Identity theft Digital signatures/certificates
(such as
those from VeriSign) and
encryption
Privacy Intra-
organizational
Unauthorized access
Inappropriate use
Software/electronic controls
Physical conrols, managerial


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Privacy
Compliance
controls/restrictions to access
data that could aid in profiling;
and privacy seals like TRUSTe,
BBBOnline, WebTrust and so
on
Privacy Inter-
organizational
Privacy
compliance
Data theft
Unintended use
Physical conrols, managerial
controls/restrictions to access
data that could aid in profiling;
and privacy seals like TRUSTe,
BBBOnline, WebTrust and so
on
Integrity Business
Integrity
Grievance redress Comprehensive audit of
business practices, role of
arbitrator/mediator, and seals
like BBBOnline reliability
Integrity Agreement
compliance
User agreement
violation
Enforcement (like Childrens
online privacy protection act)
Role of arbitrator/mediator
Integrity Financial
Settlements
Diversion of
payments Escrow
Services
Unauthorized usage
of
financial data
Non-repudiation
Escrow Services

[Source: Adapted from Sivasailam et al. 2002]

Table-3. Demographic characteristics and Security assurance dimensions of OTAs
observed

Assurance
dimension
Assurance
Seal
Years in existence Web traffic ranking
Early
(9)
Late
(9)
High
(3)
Low
(15)
Security VeriSign
Thawte
BBB Online
Visa verification
7
4
0
2
6
0
0
2
7
0
0
0
6
4
0
3


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Mastercard Securecode 3 1 0 3
Privacy TRUSTe
BBB privacy
EU Safe harbor
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Business
integrity
OpinionLab
BBB reliability
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

[Note: A website may have more than one seal in the same assurance dimension]

Discussion of results
The results reveal startling facts about the state of e-commerce security assurance among
Indian OTAs. None of the observed OTAs have privacy seals such as TRUSTe and BBB
Privacy which are extremely popular with international travel e-commerce websites (such
as travelocity.com and expedia.com). This could be because of the nascent stage of the
travel e-commerce market in Indian. Since this market is relatively younger in India,
perhaps the security dimension overshadows the privacy and integrity dimension.
Nevertheless, at a time when people are increasingly concerned about their online privacy
(by disenabling cookies or having reservations about their information being shared with
other e-commerce companies), the absence of privacy assurance seals indicate a gross
negligence on part of the OTAs.

In providing security assurance, the Indian OTAs have adopted the trend of subscribing
to the credit card companies (such as Visa and MasterCard) for security validation
service. The low but slowly increasing credit card penetration in India may necessitate
such a direct and affirming validation service from the credit card companies themselves.
As Table 3 shows, VeriSign is by far the most popular security assurance seal. The first
movers had more security assurance seals on their websites when compared to the late
entrants.

When it comes to providing business integrity assurance, the surveyed OTAs seem to pay
no attention. While most of them had detailed user agreements posted on their websites, a
third-party assurance about complying with those agreements was found missing.

Conclusion

E-commerce security assurance is important, yet this study reveals an ignorance (or
negligence) toward security assurance among Indian OTAs. Companies must become
more proactive in obtaining assurance seals. We live in times when customers distrust of
companies is high. If consumers have no confidence in assurance seals, they are likely to


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avoid online transactions. Affirmative action by the government, coupled with self-
imposed reforms by assurance service providers could possibly discourage corrupt
practices and boost consumer confidence in assurance seals and also the state of travel e-
commerce. As e-commerce transactions become increasingly complex, coupled with
increased regulations and liability exposure, the need for assurance in e-commerce
protocols is likely to grow.

Future directions for this study may include assessing the effectiveness of e-commerce
security assurance using the following research questions: Would customers be more
likely to buy with than without an assurance seal? Would customers or users feel safer in
the cyberspace with assurance service? Which of the assurance dimensions has the
greatest impact on customers perceptions regarding trustworthiness of OTA websites? It
may be worthwhile to conduct a comparative research on the differences of assurance
dimensions between the service providers (say, hotels and airlines) and the OTAs.


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Why and how island tourists look at SMTE websites, In Li, E. and Soe-Tsyr, Y. (Eds.),
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Buhalis, D., (2003). eTourism: Information technology for strategic tourism management,
Harlow: Pearson Education.
Castelfranchi, C. and Tan, Y. H., (2001). Trust and Deception in Virtual Societies,
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Colwill, C. M., Todd, M. C., Fielder, G. P. and Natanson, C., (2001). Information
Assurance, BT Technology Journal, 19, 10714.
ExpressHospitality.com, 2008. VeriSign offers secured solutions for travel e-
commerce. (Available at http://www.expresshospitality.com/20080915/market10.shtml)
Garbarino, E. and Strahilevitz. M., (2004). Gender differences in the perceived risk of
buying online and the effects of receiving a site recommendation, Journal of Business
Research, 57, 768-775.
Gefen, D., Karahanna, E. and Straub, D. W., (2003). Trust and TAM in online shopping:
An integrated model, MIS Quarterly, 27(1), 5190.


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Jarvenpaa, S., Tractinsky, N. and Vitale. M., (2000). Consumer trust in an Internet
store, Information Technology and Management, 1, 45-71.
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1(11), 1-55.
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Managerial Auditing Journal, 19(4), 556-564.
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POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS INTERVENTIONS ON MENTAL HEALTH
OF IT PROFESSIONALS IN BANGALORE
By :- B Rose Kavitha and Maya Salimath G

Abstract
Life is moving at an increasingly fast pace, the consequences of having one or more of
the essential life elements out of order are becoming more and more severe. If one is not
highly employable and good at work or if one does not have the character and
competencies to be good human being or if one is in debt over head and constantly
pressed by economic concerns or if one is stressed and feel as if s/he never have enough
time and that important things in ones life are not getting done, these things are going to
have negative significance, and will increasingly impact on the quality of life. It is also
said the satisfaction and happiness comes from within an individual and the way s/he
takes life.
This paper is a summary of the research conducted to analyse the impact of positive
psychology on the mental health and the means of personal change of IT professionals in
Bangalore. The survey of 200 IT Professional was conducted to find the impact of
different components of positive psychology on the individuals during moving towards
mental happiness and well-being.
Key Words: Positive Psychology, Mental Health, Mental Happiness, Life
Satisfaction
1. Introduction
Since ancient times, humans have been searched for an answer as to what makes a good
life. Scientists who study psychological well being assume that an important feature of a
god life is that the person himself likes his life. As wellbeing refers to the degree to which
an individuals judgement regarding enduring mood (happiness as well as evaluation of
the self (satisfaction with ones physical and mental health and functioning) and its
relation to the material and psychological environment (life satisfaction and hope)
Many factors need to be studies in a professionals life. Psychological wellbeing concerns
optimal psychological functioning and entails the perception of engagement with
existential challenges of life, for example pursuing meaningful goals, growing and
developing as a person, and establishing quality ties to others (Keyes et al., 2002)
2., Background
Present days IT companies are experiencing attrition as the biggest problem, in-spite of
giving almost every amenity to the employees. According to the research it is found that
the environment of an IT organization plays a very vital role as to why employees are


32 | P a g e

finding it difficult to stay back in the organizations and also it is found that they are not
happy and unsatisfied. It is also said the satisfaction and happiness comes from within an
individual and the way s/he takes life.
2.1., Emotional well being & Mental Health
In the mid-19th century, William Sweetzer was the first to clearly define the term "mental
hygiene", which can be seen as the precursor to contemporary approaches to work on
promoting positive mental health. Isaac Ray, one of thirteen founders of the American
Psychiatric Association, further defined mental hygiene as an art to preserve the mind
against incidents and influences which would inhibit or destroy its energy, quality or
development.
Mental health can be seen as a continuum, where an individual's mental health may have
many different possible values. Mental wellness is generally viewed as a positive
attribute, such that a person can reach enhanced levels of mental health, even if they do
not have any diagnosable mental health condition. This definition of mental health
highlights emotional well-being, the capacity to live a full and creative life, and the
flexibility to deal with life's inevitable challenges. Many therapeutic systems and self-
help books offer methods and philosophies espousing strategies and techniques vaunted
as effective for further improving the mental wellness of otherwise healthy people.
2.2., Positive Psychology
Positive psychology is increasingly prominent in mental health. The field of positive
psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being,
contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow
and happiness (in the present). At the individual level, it is about positive individual
traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic
sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high
talent, and wisdom. At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions
that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism,
civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p.
5).
Some researchers in this field posit that positive psychology can be delineated into three
overlapping areas of research:
2.2.1., Research into the Pleasant Life, or the "life of enjoyment", examines how people
optimally experience, forecast, and savor the positive feelings and emotions that are part
of normal and healthy living (e.g. relationships, hobbies, interests, entertainment, etc.).
Martin Seligman says that this most transient element of happiness may be the least
important, despite the attention it is given.


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2.2.2., The study of the Good Life, or the "life of engagement", investigates the
beneficial affects of immersion, absorption, and flow that individuals feel when optimally
engaged with their primary activities. These states are experienced when there is a
positive match between a person's strength and the task they are doing, i.e. when they feel
confident that they can accomplish the tasks they face.
2.2.3.,Inquiry into the Meaningful Life, or "life of affiliation", questions how
individuals derive a positive sense of well-being, belonging, meaning, and purpose from
being part of and contributing back to something larger and more permanent than
themselves (e.g. nature, social groups, organizations, movements, traditions, belief
systems).
3., Research Methodology
At the outset the study is a Descriptive Research. In this study an attempt is made to
identify the variables, which are critical and mostly are the causes for the problems
associated with mental health and well being of employees which lead to personal change
and growth of the IT professionals.
3.1 ., Objectives of the study
3.1.1., To find the present level of satisfaction Life among the IT Professionals.
3.1.2., To evaluate the present factors leading to mental happiness and well- being at
workplace
3.1.3., To investigate the influence of factors of being happy at the work place
3.1.4., To identify the variables those are critical to positive psychology and personal
change.
3.2., Data collection
The data for the research is collected both from secondary as well as primary sources.
3.2.1., Primary data: Primary data is collected through a combination of a structured
questionnaire consisting of 26 questions divided across 9 questions on Personal Growth
Initiative Scale (PGIS), 5 questions on Satisfaction with life scale (SLS) and 12 questions
on Adult Hope Scale (AHS).
3.2.2., Secondary data: Secondary data is collected from various sources like :
Reports from the office of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
Journals of Organizational Behaviour, HRM
The journals of positive & applied psychology, and so on
Research Articles on Mental health, positive psychology, well being and personal
change.


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3.3., Sampling methodology
3.3.1., Population: The population for the study includes all the people who are working
in various IT companies in Bangalore.
3.3.2.,Sampling method: The sampling method for the research is a combination of
quota sampling and judgment sampling with the basis of quota being the people
considered from various areas divided according to geographical locations.
3.3.3., Sample size: Sample size constituted of 200 Professional who work for IT & ITes
companies at team members level. The age range was, 25-35 years with the experience
range of 3-10 years.
4., Measures
4.1., The adult hope scale (AHS) measures Snyder's cognitive model of hope which
defines hope as "a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived
sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy), and (b) pathways (planning to meet
goals)" (Snyder, Irving, & Anderson, 1991, p. 287). The adult hope scale contains 12
items. Four items measure pathways thinking, four items measure agency thinking, and
four items are fillers. Participants respond to each item using an 7-point scale ranging
from definitely false to definitely true and the scale takes only a few minutes to complete.
See Snyder (2002) for a review of hope theory and research.
4.2., The PGIS (Personal Growth Initiative Scale) is a self-report instrument that yields a
single scale score for personal growth initiative. Personal growth initiative is a person's
active and intentional involvement in changing and developing as a person. The PGIS
consists of nine items that are rated on a Likert scale from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 =
Strongly Agree. Item scores are summed to obtain a total PGIS score. There is evidence
that the PGIS is strongly positively related to psychological well-being and negatively
related to psychological distress. Reliability and validity evidence has been strong.
4.3., The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS) was developed to assess satisfaction with
people's lives as a whole. The scale does not assess satisfaction with specific life
domains, such as health or finances, but allows subjects to integrate and weigh these
domains in whatever way they choose.
5., Results and Discussions
The scoring of the scales was done according to the respective manuals. The weighted
average mean was used to analyze the obtained data. Further chi-square test is used to
find out the level significant influence among the variables considered all the three sets.
Further one way anova was performed in order to check the internal consistency of
responses across the groups of question.
The level of significance for all the above mentioned statistical interventions is = .05


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5.1., The responses of the IT Professionals about the statement I am satisfied with life
in the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS) which ranges from 1 (Strongly disagree) -
7(Strongly agree), the weighted average mean of 200 respondents on the above
mentioned statement is found to be 2.79 which is less than 4, Which means the IT
professional are highly dissatisfied in the life. So it is interpreted that they need some
change in their life in terms of satisfaction.
5.2., The responses of the IT Professionals on the statement The conditions about my
life are excellent in the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS) ranges from 1 (Strongly
disagree) - 7(Strongly agree), the weighted average mean of the 200 respondents is found
to be 3.77 which is less than 4, Which means the conditions of life of IT professional is
not found to be good. They are not satisfied with their life.
5.3., The responses of the It professionals on the statement There are lot of ways
around many problems in the Adult Hope Scale (AHS) ranging from 1 (Strongly
disagree) - 7(Strongly agree), the weighted average mean of the 200 respondents is found
to be 5.83 which is more than 4, and this states that they have hopes that they can come
out of any kind of problems in the life.
5.4., The responses of the IT Professionals about the statement My past experiences
have prepared me well for my future in the Adult Hope Scale (AHS) ranging from 1
(Strongly disagree) - 7(Strongly agree), the weighted average mean of the 200
respondents is found to be 6.32 which is more than 4, Which means the IT professional
are mentally prepared for any kind of changes in their life and they can face the future
changes
5.5., The responses of the IT Professionals about the statement I have a good sense of
where I am headed in my life in the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) ranging
from 1 (Strongly disagree) - 7(Strongly agree), the weighted average mean of the 200
are conscious about where what is happening and are aware of the futuristic situations
and they are more confident in accepting the change.
5.6., The responses of the IT Professionals about the statement I have plans for making
my life more balanced in the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) ranging from 1
(Strongly disagree) - 7(Strongly agree), the weighted average mean of the 200
are pre-planned and are self efficient enough to guide themselves.
5.7., For the set of questions representing Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS), the anova
value of 0.43. It reflects that the responses are internally consistent across the questions.
5.8., For the set of questions representing Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS), the
anova value of 0.24. It reflects that the responses are internally consistent across the
questions.
5.9., For the set of questions representing Adult Hope Scale (AHS)., the anova value of
.31. It reflects that the responses are internally consistent across the questions.


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5.10., The computed Chi-Square value taking Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS)
and Adult Hope Scale (AHS) variable in to consideration happens to be 3.28 which is less
than the critical value 12.81 . Hence it can be concluded that there exists a significant
relationship between Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) and Adult Hope Scale
(AHS).
5.11., The computed Chi-Square value taking Adult Hope Scale (AHS) and Satisfaction
with Life Scale (SLS) variable into consideration happens to be 1.96 which is less than
the critical 12.81 . Hence it can be concluded that there exists a significant relationship
between Adult Hope Scale (AHS) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS).
5.12., The calculated Chi-Square value taking Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS) and
Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) variable into consideration, is got to be 0.91
which is less than the critical value for the combination of =.05 and the corresponding
degree of freedom (12.81) . Hence it can be concluded that there exists a significant
relationship between Adult Hope Scale (AHS) and Personal Growth Initiative Scale
(PGIS).
6., Conclusion
Throughout the research it has been found efficacy of positive psychological
interventions is imperative to increase happiness and life quality of IT professionals. The
life satisfaction, well being, personal growth initiative and hope about life, which are at
an outset considered to be the critical factors involved in the positive psychology. Hence
the practice of positive psychology has much to offer for the wellbeing and optimal
functioning of individuals and their societies at all levels, from the person themselves,
through the group, community, and organization, to the society and culture as a whole. In
being reflective of the assumptions and values on which it rests, positive psychology in
practice may be more fully aware of the strengths and limitations of its approach, using
this knowledge mindfully in the quest for genuine progress of an individual and scientific
discovery.


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References
Books:
Diener E, Lucas R E and Oishi S (2002) subjective wellbeing: the science of
happiness and life satisfaction in C R Synder and S J Lopez (eds), handbook of
positive psychology, pp.463-473. Oxford university press, oxford, UK
Seligman, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An Introduction.
American Psychologist, 55, 5-14
Pavot, W. & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the Satisfaction with Life Scale.
Psychological Assessment, 5, 164-172.
Pavot, W. G., Diener, E., Colvin, C. R., & Sandvik, E. (1991). Further validation of
the Satisfaction with Life Scale
Robitschek, C. (1998). Personal growth initiative: The construct and its measure.
Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 30, 183-198
Journals:
Keyes C L M , shmotkin D and Ryff C D (2002), Optimizing well being: the
empirical encounter of two traditions, journal of personality and social Psychology,
Vol 86 no.2, pp 1007-1022
Diener, E., Emmons, R.A., Larson, R.J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with
life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.
Bartley, D. F., & Robitschek, C. (2000). Career exploration: A multivariate analysis
of predictors. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 63-81.
Robitschek, C., & Cook, S. W. (1999). The influence of personal growth initiative
and coping styles on career exploration and vocational identity. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 54, 127-141.
Whittaker, A. E., & Robitschek, C. (2001). Multidimensional family functioning as
predictors of personal growth initiative. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48, 420-
427.
Worldwide Webs:
Positive psychology www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/ppsnyderchapter.htm accessed on 24
th

December 2010.


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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
By :- Dinesh Chandra, P.M.Rewatkar, Sweta A. Kahurke, and Vijay D. Rughwani

Abstract

Search Engine Optimization is a technique, which can be applied to any website (may be
personal, professional or, any type), which may be in index of Google or, not, this is a
project which is capable of carrying any website to the top of the Google page. This
paper also describes that how it is possible to takes any webpage on the top of the page
which are among in this category. This paper is capable of improving the Google Page
Rank of the website as well as improving the profit from that website. 46% website
sharing and technology is captured by Google, so, we have concentrated our project on
Google, so that we can get more competition with respect to other website, and if anyone
can get top rank in Google, that can get top in other search engine too.

Keywords: Optimization, On page, Off page, Page Rank,link,image
I. INTRODUCTION
90% user visit and satisfy from result of search engine, only 5% user dont go beyond 2
nd

page and only 2% user visit beyond 3rd page. Now, suppose your page is after 2
nd
or, 3
rd

page, then only a few chances are left for visiting your website and your business going
through that website would be negligible.

Fig. 1.SEO Process
There are more than 400,000 search engines. Average 300 - 400 million search per day.
81% of


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user visit any website through search engine. Google has 60% market share, 90% in
technology industries. 30% of users believe companies found in the top search results are
a major brand in their product or service category.
Description
Introduction to Search Engine database
In the world wide web, there are only three major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN),
who uses different databases, otherwise, other search engines use same database.
Sometimes, even Google and Yahoo uses same databases, too. For example, if we type
Population of Israel in Google search engine and same text on the Yahoo search
engine, then, we can see that the result is same.
Definition of Search Engine
An internet based tool that searches an index of document for a particular term, phrase or,
text specified by the user.

WHY SEARCHING IS DONE?

Search engines are the most powerful medium to reach the customer, because you meet
them at their point of need. 90 % of web sessions begin with a search. 81 % of users find
web sites they were looking for through search engines.
Anatomy of Search Engine
In any search engine, there are three parts.
a. Search Box In this portion user enters the query whatever user want to search in
the web or, in his/her own country also.
b. Sponsored Listing These are the links which are provided by the some
sponsored websites related to user query; all these links are from payable sites.

c. Matching the users query, arranged according to their best matching keywords.
II. GOOGLE PAGE RANK
Google page rank shows the popularity of that particular link or, any website. If the page
rank is much better than, any one consider that the particular website which has improved
page rank will give more optimized result or, he will succeed in his / her marketing
strategy, he can sell whatever he want to sell.
Suppose there are two websites A & B, the website A votes for B, and in the same way
website B votes for A, more no. of votes for the webpage, more the page rank will be for


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that particular website. In other words, we can say that if there are 100 webpage
connected to webpage A and there are 500 WebPages linked to the website B then, the
page rank of website B will be better.
III Calculation of Page Rank

Fig 2 SEO Ranking Process
Page Rank extends this idea by not counting links from all pages equally, and by
normalizing by the number of links on a page. Page Rank is defined as follows: We
assume page A has pages T1...Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is
a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are
more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links
going out of page A. The Page Rank of a page A is given as follows:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
Note that the Page Ranks form a probability distribution over web pages, so the sum of
all web pages' Page Ranks will be one. Page Rank or PR(A) can be calculated using a
simple iterative algorithm, and corresponds to the principal eigenvector of the normalized
link matrix of the web. Also, a Page Rank for 26 million web pages can be computed in a
few hours on a medium size workstation.
IV Google Architecture Overview
Google Architecture Description
Most of Google is implemented in C or C++ for efficiency and can run in either Solaris
or Linux. Google, the web crawling (downloading of web pages) is done by several
distributed crawlers. There is a URL server that sends lists of URLs to be fetched to the
crawlers. The web pages that are fetched are then sent to the store server. The store server
then compresses and stores the web pages into a repository. Every web page has an


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associated ID number called a doc ID which is assigned whenever a new URL is parsed
out of a web page. The indexing function is performed by the indexer and the sorter. The
indexer performs a number of functions. It reads the repository, uncompresses the
documents, and parses them. Each document is converted into a set of word occurrences
called hits. The hits record the word, position in document, an approximation of font size,
and capitalization. The indexer performs a number of functions. It reads the repository,
uncompresses the documents, and parses them. Each document is converted into a set of
word occurrences called hits. The hits record the word, position in document, an
approximation of font size, and capitalization. The indexer distributes these hits into a set
of "barrels", creating a partially sorted forward index. The indexer performs another
important function. It parses out all the links in every web page and stores important
information about them in an anchors file. This file contains enough information to
determine where each link points from and to, and the text of the link. The URL resolver
reads the anchors file and converts relative URLs into absolute URLs and in turn into doc
IDs. It puts the anchor text into the forward index, associated with the doc ID that the
anchor points to. It also generates a database of links which are pairs of doc IDs. The
links database is used to compute Page Ranks for all the documents.
Crawling the Web
Running a web crawler is a challenging task. There are tricky performance and reliability
issues and even more importantly, there are social issues. Crawling is the most fragile
application since it involves interacting with hundreds of thousands of web servers and
various name servers which are all beyond the control of the system. In order to scale to
hundreds of millions of web pages, Google has a fast distributed crawling system. A
single URL server serves lists of URLs to a number of crawlers (we typically ran about
3). Both the URLserver and the crawlers are implemented in Python. Each crawler keeps
roughly 300 connections open at once. This is necessary to retrieve web pages at a fast
enough pace. At peak speeds, the system can crawl over 100 web pages per second using
four crawlers. This amounts to roughly 600K per second of data. A major performance
stress is DNS lookup. Each crawler maintains a its own DNS cache so it does not need to
do a DNS lookup before crawling each document. Each of the hundreds of connections
can be in a number of different states: looking up DNS, connecting to host, sending
request, and receiving response. These factors make the crawler a complex component of
the system. It uses asynchronous IO to manage events, and a number of queues to move
page fetches from state to state. It turns out that running a crawler which connects to
more than half a million servers, and generates tens of millions of log entries generates a
fair amount of email and phone calls. Because of the vast number of people coming on
line, there are always those who do not know what a crawler is, because this is the first
one they have seen. Almost daily, we receive an email something like, "Wow, you looked
at a lot of pages from my web site. How did you like it?" There are also some people who
do not know about the robot exclusion protocol, and think their page should be protected
from indexing by a statement like, "This page is copyrighted and should not be indexed",
which needless to say is difficult for web crawlers to understand. Also, because of the
huge amount of data involved, unexpected things will happen. For example, our system
tried to crawl an online game. This resulted in lots of garbage messages in the middle of


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their game! It turns out this was an easy problem to fix. But this problem had not come
up until we had downloaded tens of millions of pages. Because of the immense variation
in web pages and servers, it is virtually impossible to test a crawler without running it on
large part of the Internet. Invariably, there are hundreds of obscure problems which may
only occur on one page out of the whole web and cause the crawler to crash, or worse,
cause unpredictable or incorrect behavior. Systems which access large parts of the
Internet need to be designed to be very robust and carefully tested. Since large complex
systems such as crawlers will invariably cause problems, there needs to be significant
resources devoted to reading the email and solving these problems as they come up.
V Optimization Technique

Fig. 3 Optimization Techniques
VI On Page Optimization Technique
Getting a good ranking in a search engine hasnt been the easiest thing for many. Search
engines are getting more smarter & intelligent everyday, so now it takes more than just
good content to top your competitors. On page optimization is one of the very first step
of SEO which every webmaster should look into. It probably wont even take you an
hour to learn and implement some of these on-page optimization techniques. But you
may ask me, why it is so important? Well literally speaking, if you can do proper on-
page optimization for your website you can not only rank well in a search engine but also
can increase the overall readability of your website for your visitors. Below I have tried
to summarize some of the most important on-page optimization techniques for you. You
can implement some of these if not all to give your site a better exposure to the search
engines as well as to increase your overall CTR (Click-Through-Rate) ratio.
a. Title Optimization


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A sites title tag is by far the most important on-page optimization element. A title tag
should be short but descriptive enough for your visitors to identify you and your business.
Title tag is the first thing that is shown & indexed by the search engines. So naturally it is
given a very high importance out of thousands results that a searcher sees, your sites
title has to be appealing enough for him to want to find out more information. On the
other hand, your title has to be appealing enough to the search engine in order to rank you
above thousands of other similar websites like yours.
b. Meta Tags Optimization
A sites Meta tags may not be as important as it used to be before, however I feel that
Meta Description is something you cant just ignore. A sites Meta description should
contain a brief description of your website focusing on the areas and services that your
business is specialized in. This small piece of text can be considered as a selling snippet,
if a searcher finds it appealing he is likely to click and go inside your page to find out
more information. But if your Meta Description is too generic and isnt written too well
then there is a good chance that your site will simply be ignored.
c. Important HTML Tags
It is necessary for you to highlight certain parts of your website that you want your
readers to look at. There are several tags in html which allows you to do so. For instance
the header tags [h1] [h2] [h3], Bold [strong], Italic [em] etc. The text inside your header
tags (e.g. [h1]) is given very high importance by the search engine. Usually you can use
them to define the page/post titles or the important sections of your website.
d. Keyword Optimization & Synonyms
Your sites content needs to be optimized in such a way that it can suit both search
engines & your readers. Stuffing your site with too many keywords can make your site
unreadable. So you will need to have some sort of balance between your keywords &
your content.
e. Link Optimization
It is important to optimize your internal & external outbound links for search engines as
well as to give your visitors a better navigation.
f. Image Optimization
If your site has lot of images, you need to optimize them too as they cant be read by the
search engines. Its very easy for a human reader to interpret the image into its meaning.
However for a Web crawler the whole interpreting process is completely different.
Search Engine spiders can only read text but not images. So you need to use some special
tags for your images in order to give them some meaning.


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VII. off Page Optimization
When you consider the type of optimization techniques to use you must consider 2
factors: give the search engines what they need and give your web site visitors the
information they need. The major search engines display 2 types of results on the SERP
(search engine results page) as a result of a user search query: paid advertisements and
natural non-paid listings. Web sites can utilize one or both of these methods to acquire
top listing positions. The paid advertisement exists on the results page due to an
agreement by the advertiser to pay the search engine when a user clicks on their ad. The
natural listing depends on the optimization techniques employed on the web site. This
article will focus only on the natural listing.
Each search engine has their own algorithm to determine which web sites meet their
requirements and therefore obtain the higher SERP natural listing positions (or ranks) for
a given keyword or keyword phrase in a user search query.
There are a large number of on-page optimization factors that are considered in the search
engine evaluation process. These factors include but are not limited to: words in the web
page url, title tag, meta tags, headlines, sub headlines, keyword density, words at the
beginning of the page, page content, words that are bold, words in the links, site
navigation, the structure of links and a number of other considerations. You want to make
certain that you do not over optimize your web site and have the search engines consider
your site spammed.
There are also a number of things you can do "off your web page" to improve your search
engine page rank and increase targeted visitor traffic to your web site. This is the area
known as off-page optimization. Off-page factors should be carefully considered and
implemented to achieve a higher search engine ranking. These factors are primarily tied
to the site's linking (inbound and outbound) techniques. This is commonly known as link
popularity.
How popular are the web sites that link to you and the sites you link to? Are the inbound
links to you relevant to your site's content? How popular is your web site? Each link to
your web site from another web site (i.e., back link) is considered a "vote" to your site's
popularity. These votes can increase the importance of your web site from the search
engine's prospective.
Some of the factors considered by the major search engines in evaluating the off-page
optimization of your web site include:
* Which web sites are linking to your site? It's critical that the web sites linking to your
site are relevant to the content on your site and the linking site is considered an authority
in its field by the search engine.
* How many web sites are linking to your site? The number of relevant sites that link to
you is a significant plus for your site.


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* What is the Google page rank (1-10) of each web site that links to your site? This is a
major factor because a high page rank relevant site linking to your site is much better
than a low page rank site. A site's voting power increases as the page rank of the site
increases. * What is the anchor text of each link to your site? The anchor text indicates
the area of relevance the linking site places on your site. This anchor text should include
your primary keywords. The text in the linking anchor text should not be the same in
every site linking to your site. This is not seen as natural linking by the search engines.
You need to get variability in the anchor text.
* What is the page title of the web page that is linking to your site? It is better if the title
page of the linking web page is relevant to your site and contains one of your keywords
in its title. If it just says "link directory" then that is not good.

* Is the link to your site a reciprocal link or a one-way link? A reciprocal link means you
have linked back to the web site that linked to you. This can be a negative to your site
because you lose some of your site's page rank to the other site. If you do resort to
reciprocal links, make certain the page rank of the other site is the same or higher that the
page rank of your linking page. The one- way link to your site is a much better deal
because you do not lose any of your site's page rank.
* How many inbound and outbound links are on the web page linking to your site? The
page rank of the site linking to you is influenced by the inbound and outbound links. The
linking site will pass you more of its rank as it decreases the number of outbound links.
* How important is the web site that is linking to your site in its area of relevance? You
will get more bangs for your buck if the site linking to you is considered an authority in
its area.

In conclusion, you need to evaluate and utilize some of the factors in both on-page and
off-page optimization if you want to achieve high natural page listing on the search
engines.
Our project can be visited on sites.google.com/site/searchengineoptimizationfamily/ -
Cached
VIII. SEO Impact Percentage

S. No. Ranking Factor Impact %
1. Keyword Focused Anchor Text from
External Links
73%
2. External Link Popularity 71%
3. Diversity of Link Sources 67%


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4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title
Tag
66%
5. Trustworthiness of the Domain
Based on Link Distance from Trusted
Domains
66%

Table I
IMPACT OF VARIOUS FACTORS REGARDING SEO POINT OF VIEW
IX. Factors for SEO Ranking

24% Trust/Authority of the Host Domain
22% Link Popularity of the Specific Page
20% Anchor Text of External Links to the Page
15% On-Page Keyword Usage
7% Visitor/Traffic & Click-Through Data
6% Social Graph Metrics
5% Registration & Hosting Data


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References
Brian Pinkerton. "Finding What People Want: Experiences with the WebCrawler"
(PDF). The Second International WWW Conference Chicago, USA, October 17
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Danny Sullivan (June 14, 2004). "Who Invented the Term "Search Engine
Optimization"?". Search Engine Watch.
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showpost.php?p=2119&postcount=10.
Retrieved 2007-05-14. See Google groups thread.

Cory Doctorow (August 26, 2001). "Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-
men of the meta-utopia". e-LearningGuru. http://www.e-
learningguru.com/articles/metacrap.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-08.

Pringle, G., Allison, L., and Dowe, D. (April 1998). "What is a tall poppy among
web pages?". Proc. 7th Int. World Wide Web Conference.
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/tilde/InterNet/Search/1998_WWW7.html.
Retrieved 2007-05-08.

Brin, Sergey and Page, Larry (1998). "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale
Hypertextual Web Search Engine". Proceedings of the seventh international
conference on World Wide Web. pp. 107117. http://www-
db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html. Retrieved 2007-05-08.

Thompson, Bill (December 19, 2003). "Is Google good for you?". BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3334531.stm. Retrieved 2007-05-16.

Zoltan Gyongyi and Hector Garcia-Molina (2005). "Link Spam Alliances" (PDF).
Proceedings of the 31st VLDB Conference, Trondheim, Norway.
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~zoltan/publications/gyongyi2005link.pdf. Retrieved
2007-05-09.

Hansell, Saul (June 3, 2007). "Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine". New
York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03google.html.

"Search Engine Ranking Factors V2". SEOmoz.org. April 2, 2007.
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors. Retrieved 2007-05-14.

Christine Churchill (November 23, 2005). "Understanding Search Engine
Patents". Search Engine Watch.
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3564261. Retrieved 2007-
05-08.

"Google Personalized Search Leaves Google Labs - Search Engine Watch
(SEW)". searchenginewatch.com. http://searchenginewatch.com/3563036.

"Will Personal Search Turn SEO On Its Ear?". www.webpronews.com.
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ear. Retrieved 2009-09-05.

"8 Things We Learned About Google PageRank". www.searchenginejournal.com.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/8-things-we-learned-about-google-
pagerank/5897/. Retrieved 2009-08-17.


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"PageRank sculpting". Matt Cutts. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-
sculpting/. Retrieved 2010-01-12.


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A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON WEP and WPA in IEEE
802.11(Wi-Fi)
By :- D.M. Gharge, S. V. Halse
Abstract
Wireless networking provides many advantages, but it also coupled with new security
threats and alters the organizations overall information security risk profile. A wireless
network transmits signals over radio waves and there is a possibility or a certainty in
most cases that attempts to capture signals and hack your network will be made. To
protect your wireless network from such attacks, you need to install wireless security
standards like WEP, WPA or WPA2. They encrypt the data transmitted on the network
and ensure that nefarious schemes of hackers don't work! In this paper I am compared a
WEP and WPA on the basis of practical work, which will point out the main differences
between the two standards and help you choose between the two. At the end we come
with many conclusions and suggestions that will help in order to provide better security
while deploying Wireless LAN.
Keywords: Wireless Network (802.11), Wireless Security, WEP, WPA, WPA2, RC4,
TKIP.
1. Introduction:
Since the beginning of wireless telegraphy and radio communication, the threat of data
being intercepted and stolen for malicious purposes has always been there. To counter
these threats, with the advent of wireless networking, encryption methods were
developed to prevent data from being stolen. Cryptology developed as a science to
counter these hacking attempts made on wireless transmissions [7]. To protect wireless
networks, first the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) technology was developed.
However, WEP proved to be inadequate and was easily hacked due to inherent flaws in
the encryption methods. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) was developed as an
improvement over WEP for the IEEE 802.11i wireless network standard. As a WPA vs
WEP2 comparison would reveal, WPA did succeed where WEP failed. WPA2 is the
successor of WPA with even more improved encryption methods. Let us compare WPA
and WPA2 according to their encryption methods and overall performance.
2. Security in WLAN
This paper describes the different security solutions for IEEE 802.11 standard like WEP,
WPA, and WPA2 with their architecture, drawback and explanation of different attacks
on these security solutions in detail and how they overcome each other and which one is
considered to be best in which environment


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3. WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy)
WEP is a first security technique that is used in IEEE 802.11 standards. The main
purpose of using the WEP is to provide the security to WLAN like the wired LAN. WEP
helps to make the communication secure and provide the secret authentication scheme
between AP and the end user which is going to access the WLAN. Basically WEP
implemented on initial Wi-Fi networks so that the user can not access the network
without the correct key. WEP uses symmetric key encryption that ranges from 64 to 128
bit long encryption key. Usually, the same encrypted key is used for all the nodes in the
network and manually forwarded to each node means WEP is unable to provide the key
management function. WEP is using the shared key authentication method in which the
user needs two things in order to access the WLAN, one is SSID and second is WEP key
generated by the AP. The IEEE 802.11 standard defines the three different parameters for
the WEP i.e. access control, data privacy and data integrity
3.1 WEP Architecture
The IEEE 802.11 standard uses the RC4 encryption algorithm for WEP in order to
provide the privacy to Wifi Network because it is easy to implement in software as well
as hardware and very cheap in comparison with other encryption algorithm. RC4 is
considered to be an initial and reasonable encryption algorithm. The WEP uses the 32 bit
cyclic redundancy code (CRC-32) as an integrity algorithm that is generated at the
transmitting side. It is generated for each frame of data that is to be transmitted by
performing some polynomials calculation, and after that checksum is added with each
data frame. At the recipient side similar polynomial calculations are performed on the
data frames, if the checksum calculated at the both side is same, than it assumes that data
is safe otherwise it is assumed as altered data. WEP used to encrypt the information at
transmitting side and decrypt the data at receiving side.
1. Encryption of information at sender side.
The following are the steps which take place during the encryption process:
- Compute the ICV using CRC-32 over the plaintext.
- Concatenate the ICV to the plaintext.
- Choose an Initialization Vector (IV) and concatenate this with the secret key.
- Input the secret key into the RC4 algorithm to produce a RC4 key stream.
- Encrypt
the


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plaintext by doing a bit-wise XOR with the RC4 key stream to produce the cipher
text.
- Communicate the IV to the peer by placing it in front of the cipher text.

Fig.(01) Encryption process of information at sender side by using WEP technique
2. Decryption of information at receiving side.
The following are the steps which take place during the decryption process:
- Use transmitted IV and secret key to generate RC4 key stream.
- XOR cipher text with RC4 key stream to get ICV and plaintext.
- Check the checksum ICV using the data integrity algorithm.
- If it is the same as the ICV generated from step 2 accept transmitted message
otherwise reject it.
Hence the message is successfully decrypted and the original message is available at the
recipient side. The whole process is clearly defined in the figure 2 below.

Fig. (02) Decryption of process at the recipient side by using the WEP technique
3.2 Flaws in WEP

WEP is considered to be a weak security technique for WLAN now a day. Below are
some major reasons due to WEP is unable to provide the security to WLAN,
- It uses the RC4 stream cipher algorithm for authentication and privacy point of
view. The problem is not available with the RC4 algorithm even though its a


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good encryption algorithm but unfortunately it was not applied correctly for the
WEP technique. At every stage of RC4 it is clearly defined not to use the same
key material for more than one time, it is not specify that whatever the payload is.
RC4 simply performs the XOR operation for the data.
- Another problem with the RC4 algorithm is that its adding the IV with the WEP
pre shared key. If there is lot of traffic available in the wireless networks, there is
chance for many packets to drop in between the communication that will require
resending. So in WEP for every resend of packet the IV is changed, which only
has 224 key spaces.
- It uses weak authentication algorithm.
- It uses weak data encapsulation method.
- Size of IV is very small that is 24 bit long.
- The use of improper integrity algorithm i.e. CRC-32.
- Unable to prevent from replay protection.
- Lack of mutual authentication and key management.
As the previous studies and the current research it is proved that the WEP is failed to
provide security to WLANs

3.3 Attacks on WEP
WEP is a kind of security protocol that is based on encryption algorithm called "RC4". Its
purpose is to provide security to WLAN similar to the security which is provided in the
wired LAN. There are few drawbacks in WEP like small RC4 encryption key and also
utilization of small IV. Another drawback is to use XOR procedure for cipher key with
plain text to create cipher text. This section describes some attacks on WEP.
- Brute force attack.
- Attack against key stream re-uses.
- Weak IV attacks.
- Modern attacks.

4. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)
Wi-Fi provides a new technique for wireless security that is WPA in order to solve the
problems that is available in initial security solution WEP. WPA has several advantages
over WEP that are depicted below.
- Overcome with a strong, interoperable and replacement of security flaws of
WEP.


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- Improved data encryption, because WEP has very weak data encryption
method.
- Strong user authentication, which is also not available in WEP.
- There are many of attack relates to static key, so WPA minimize shared secret
key in accordance with the frame transmission.
- WPA uses a secured and complex encryption hashing function for the ICV
algorithm that works in a passion that it shared the secret key between user
and AP.
- Use the RC4 algorithm in a proper way and provide fast transfer of the data
before someone can decrypt the data.
- WPA avoids the repetitions by using of larger IVs.
WPA is an intelligent security solution then the WEP and work in a passion that it
transfers the WEP key by using the TKIP encryption mechanism as fast as possible
before somebody decrypts the key. When this technique is correctly configured then the
automatically data confidentiality is available to all the authorized users that are
connected to the wifi network. On the other hand all the components used in WPA are
considered to be subset of 802.11i extension and all the components of WPA is backward
compatible with 802.11i devices.
4.1 Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)
A new data encryption and integrity methods are developed by the 802.11i i.e. TKIP
because the WEP has many flaws. TKIP has the two basic goals first to get clear from the
problems that are available with WEP and secondly it also performs as legacy hardware
this is because of why almost all the encryption algorithm of the WEP is implemented on
hardware point of view. Basically the TKIP is cipher suite and known as a secure
encryption algorithm in comparison with the WEP encryption algorithm, TKIP provide
the best solution and suggest to use the different base WEP key for the every packet in
order to solve the Problem available in the WEP encryption i.e. the reuse of RC4 key
more than one time and usage of some weak RC4 keys. Mainly TKIP consists of three
basic protocols.
- A cryptographic message integrity algorithm.
- A key mixing algorithm
- Extension of initialization vector according to size
TKIP cryptographic algorithm is avoiding the problem that is available in WEP i.e. to
generate the separate key for each packet rather than only one key for all packets in WEP
technique. The hashing algorithm is avoiding the alteration of packets in the medium.
TKIP also solve the drawback available in IVs by increasing the size of IV which will


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help in order to solve the problems by using a longer packet counter and avoid the replay
protection.
4.2 WPA Architecture
The main goal of WPA is to provide the more complex encryption method and
authentication by using the TKIP with the help of MIC. The purpose of MIC is to prevent
from the attacks of bit flipping also known as the alteration of message that can be easily
performed in the WEP hashing technique. The architecture of WPA is shown in the
following fig. (03).
1. Encryption of information at sender side.
The following are the steps which take place during the encryption process:
- The key mixing function accepts the initialization vector (IV), Destination Address
(DA) and the Data encryption key as the input. It calculates the per-packet encryption
key.
- The Michael algorithm accepts the Source Address (SA), Destination Address (DA),
Data and the Data encryption key as the input to produce MIC as the output.
- The ICV is calculated using the CRC-32 checksum.
- The per-packet encryption key and the IV are input to the PRNG to generate a Key
stream which has the same length as the combined length of Data, MIC and ICV.
These are XORed to produce the encrypted Data.
- The IV is added to the encrypted data along with Extended IV fields, and the result is
encapsulated with 802.11 header and trailer


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Fig (03). Encryption process of WPA
2. Decryption of information at sender side.
The following are the steps which take place during the decryption process:
- The key mixing function accepts the initialization vector (IV), Destination Address (DA)
and the Data encryption key as the input from the encrypted data. It calculates the per
packet encryption key. The IV value is obtained from the IV and the Extended IV fields
The per-packet encryption key and the IV are input to the PRNG to generate a Key
stream which has the same length as the combined length of Data, MIC and ICV.
- The ICV is calculated using the CRC-32 checksum.
- The Key stream is XORed with the encrypted Data, MIC and ICV to output the
unencrypted Data, MIC and ICV.
- The ICV is calculated and compared to the value of the unencrypted ICV. If the ICV
values do not match, the data is discarded.
- The DA, SA, data, and the data integrity key are input into the Michael integrity
algorithm to produce the MIC. The calculated value of the MIC is compared to the value
of the unencrypted MIC. If the MIC values do not match, the data is discarded otherwise
the data is accepted.

Fig (04). Decryption process of WPA


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Flaws in WPA
WPA provides the drawback with the use of Pre-shared Keys (PSKs) that is considered to
be a substitute authentication device for small business and home client that do not need
to use the individual authentication server and entire 802.1 x key architecture. Anybody
is having little understanding of the PSK can conclude some PTK in the ESS during
passive sniffing of the wireless network, by eavesdrop for all those necessary key that
exchange data frames.

WPA tools are using handshake process for interchanging the data encryption keys for
the wireless session between the access point and the end user, attacker who do not know
the PSK can make a guess that is known as dictionary attack or bruit force attack.
PSK is supplied in the standard to make simpler deployments in small and less hazard networks.
The hazard of using the PSK against internal attacks is comparatively as worst as WEP and
hazard of using the passphrase based PSKs against external attacks is greater than WEP.
4.3 Attacks on WPA
It is necessary for every attacker to first capture the data traffic of the network until and
unless attacker founds the encrypted ARP request or response. In some cases these types
of packets can easily be recognized by the attacker depends upon the length of
characteristic. On the other hand WEP and TKIP are unable to protect the source and
destination addresses and always sent these addresses to broadcast address of the
network. In this case the hacker knows overall of the plaintext excluding the last eight
bits of source and destination IP address, 64 bits of the MIC code known as MICHAEL
and 32 bits of ICV. The last portion of the plaintext is the combination of MIC and ICV
that is 12 bytes long.
- Firstly, if the end user received the packet having invalid ICV, network assumes that
mistake as a transmission error and in result that packet is rejected. Secondly, if the
MIC code is incorrect then network think it as an attack, no matter ICV value is
correct and the AP is informed by exchanging MIC failure report frame from the
client side.
- If a packet is successfully received at the end user side, a Temporal sequence counter
(TSC) is checked if the TSC number is lower than the current counter received (the
received packet is assumes as out of order and simply it is rejected).
Following table shows the difference between WEP, WPA and WPA2.

WEP WPA WPA2
Cipher RC4 RC4 AES
Key Size 40-bits 128-bits encryption 64-bits Authentication 128-bits


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IV 24-bit 48-bit 48-bit
Packet Key Concatenated TKIP -
Data Integrity CRC-32 Michael CCM
Header Integrity - Michael CCM
Replay Attack - IV Sequence IV Sequence

Conclusion:
Wireless security has undergone major changes in the past few years. WEP, the original
security standard, is widely considered as broken. Hence, Wi-Fi Alliance along with the
major network equipment manufacturing companies is working to develop a new level of
security standards. WPA is an interim solution to the WEP vulnerability. WPA is
generally believed as a major security improvement in wireless environment. WPA
supports existing wireless infrastructure. The transition from WEP to WPA has been
made possible through a software or firmware up-gradation. This was expected to
provide a robust security for wireless environment in the future. In wireless security
WPA only supports TKIP encryption while WPA2 supports AES.
However, due to more complex and computation intensive authentication and encryption
protocols, WPA becomes difficult to implement. A considerable amount of research is
being made to come up with new wireless security protocols like WPA2 in order to
overcome the limitations of WPA.


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References
Graham, E., Steinbart, P.J. (2006) Wireless Security

Hardjono, Thomas & Dondeti, Lakshminath R. 2005. Security in Wireless LANs
and MANs. Artech House, Incorporated.

Benny Bing & TK tin. 2003. The worldwide wifi technological trends and
business strategies. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken New Jersey

AvHarold F. Tipton & Micki Krause. 2009. Information security management
handbook. Auerbach Publications.

Arinze Nwabude. 2008. Wireless local area network (WLAN): security risk and
counter measures. Blekinge Institute of Technology.

Wi-Fi Protected Access: Strong, Standard based, interoperable security for
todays Wi-Fi networks. Retrieved june 28 2005. Online available
http://www.wifialliance.com/opensection/pdf/whitepaper_Wi-Fi_Security4-29-
03.pdf

ISS Technical Paper Internet Security System, Wireless LAN Security 802.11b
and Corporate Network. Barfiled Road, Atlanta.

F. Cao & S. Malik, 2005. Security Analysis and Solutions for Deploying IP
Telephony in the Critical Infrastructure, Critical Infrastructure Assurance Group
Cisco Systems, Inc.

Patrick C.K & M. Vargas. 2006. Security Issues in VOIP Applications. Hung
University of Ontario Institute of Technology Oshawa, Canada.

Joon S.Park & Derrick Dicoi. 2003. WLAN Security: Current and Future
Wireless LAN deployment improves users mobility, but it also brings a range
of security issues that affect emerging standards and related technologies. IEEE
computer society.

Nguyen The Anh & Rajee Shorey. 2005. Network sniffing tool for WLANs:
Merits and Limitations. IEEE Computer Society


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e-CRM: A Driving Force for Making Online Education and
Training by Technical Institutes - A Self- Service Activity

By :- Sharat Kaushik, Manpreet Kaur and Neeraj Chopra

ABSTARCT
e-CRM stands for Electronic Customer Relationship Management, concerned with managing
relationships with customers using IT enabled services. Online Education and Training is valued
added service which improves the scope of e-CRM and it makes online education and training of
various Technical Institutes - A Self-Service Activity. The purpose of this paper is to capture the
full picture of online education and training as a self service activity due to e-CRM and its
components which includes intranet and extranets. This study is aimed at strengthening the scope
of e-CRM as a tool to build an effective relationship between trainers and trainees. The
underlying thought is that Technical Institutes realize that they can effectively impart education
and training by acknowledging different groups of trainees that vary widely in their behavior and
requirements.

Key Words: eCRM, Education, Training, Self Service Activity, Trainee, Learner.
Introduction
Every year lakhs of students nationwide explore for the desired universities for higher-
education and the administrators of technical institutes make budgets and guess about
how many would apply for their campus. As the number of universities grows
nationwide, Higher-education institutions need to successfully recruit, inform, service
and retain students to be competitive in a market where the competition from other
institutions is intense. The Universities have come to realize that they will have to
compete far more aggressively than they have in past to recruit and train students. Also, a
very stiff competition from the international market is forcing the universities in India to
turn to CRM to compete efficiently. The students are being attracted not only to foreign
universities and but their collaborative ventures in India. Currently there are 213 UGC
approved universities in India. The endeavor of Universities in this context is restricted
by the limited funds so they have to find out more efficient ways to deliver the most with
the least. Keeping in view the same the universities have been investing in IT
infrastructure so that CRM can work effectively and hence eCRM. The automation of the
education & training by a Technical Institution is distinguishing indicator of eCRM.
There is a fundamental difference between the business industry and the sector of higher
education where the students are not customers but learners / trainees. So, a greater
challenge for the universities is to allocate initial investment for eCRM and also a deeper
understanding of the contemporary eCRM practices in the field of higher education.


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CRM (Customer Relationship Management) focuses on management of relationship with
customers. eCRM being a subset of Customer Relationship management employs
electronic means for managing relationship with customers. According to Furash, 1999
and Ab Hamid & Kassim, 2004 interactivity and the ability to capture useful information
via Internet technology have spurred interest in the feasibility of streamlining information
provided, forecasting customers needs, understanding preferences, delivering
personalized services and enabling customization. It is being accepted as the process of
following students from prospect to alumni and supporting them all the way. eCRM is a
driving force for making Online Education and Training a Self Service Activity. Online
Education and Training is a catch all term that covers a wide range of instructional
material that can be delivered on the Internet. The online education and training
empowers the University to deliver training & critical information to its wide spread
student base across different time zones ensuring as a self service activity.
This paper is focused on studying the current eCRM practices adopted for online
education and training by various universities in India. For the purpose of study
Universities have been studied as Technical Institutions and the students as customers or
trainees. The universities are using eCRM to gain attention, acquire, understand, deliver
value and improve by training and retain the students. This paper focuses on studying the
effective usage of eCRM for value generation and creation of environment for delivering
education and training as a Self Service Activity.
Managing Institutes and Trainee Relationship in Internet Environment

Relationship marketing refers to broader organizational efforts involving personnel
across organizations (Zineldin,2000), directed towards establishing, developing and
maintaining customer loyalty and stimulating repeat purchase over time (Foster &
Cadogan, 2000). It embraces the idea of treating each customer in an individualized way;
delivering individualized products/services to each and every customer (one-to-one
marketing) (Moon, 1999). This research paper focuses on e-CRM which is one of the
aspect of CRM opted by different technical institutes offering different technical courses
for trainee of different categories as a Self Service Activity. The portal of technical
institutes is a strong Front End tools for the trainee, which they can access via internet to
collect information about the different technical courses being offered and the online
mode of doing these courses. Internet-based services continue to grow in importance in
the technical institutes to trainee environment. From a student perspective, Internet based
services significantly reduce the cost for searching appropriate institute, provide wider
selection, education services at lower prices, customized course contents with
convenience as the main element. The Indira Gandhi National Open University is one of
the best examples of the Online Training and Education and the university had started a
virtual campus concept for the students and it has been widely acceptance by the students
nationwide.
Objectives of the Study


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The objectives of this study are:
1. To study any time and any where concept of learning by trainees making online
education and training a Self Service Activity.
2. To arrive at the value chain model of E-learning systems of virtual campus for
delivering education and training as a Self Service Activity.
Hypothesis and Model Development
This study gives a new dimension to e-CRM which is called Self Service Activity and
also known as E-learning system opted by different technical institutes and the quality of
the user interface and navigation speed may reduce trainee efforts to fulfill their
requirements of higher education. This study also highlights numerous activities such as
Virtual Campus and EduNxt etc which comprises online education system of different
universities and improves trainee and trainer relationship and thereby improves
relationship of trainee with technical institutes. This next generation interactive study
environment is normally used by those universities which offer distance education
courses for the trainee who are employed but want to pursue higher education to enhance
their qualification for their promotions. Previous studies made in the context of e-CRM
only highlight the improvement of relationship with customers from business perspective
but this study gives e-CRM a new facet of A Self Service Activity for the learner / trainee
for pursuing higher education and thereby generating value for the business of technical
institutes and indicates a revolutionary change in the study pattern of students i.e. any
time and any where study.

Model of e-CRM as Self Service Activity


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Framework of e-CRM as Self Service Activity based on the student initiative for E-
Learning

In the academic sector, the e-CRM is gaining popularity day by day through the usage of
E-Learning system. E-Learning consists of all types of electronically learning and
teaching where the base is computer network. E-Learning application and process
comprises of Web based learning, Computer-based learning, Virtual Class room
arrangements and digital collaborations. In this, content is delivered to trainees via the
Internet, intranet or extranet, audio or video tapes, satellite TV etc. It can be self-driven
or trainer-driven and includes media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming
video and audio. Developments in the field of networking and multimedia technologies
are the primary enablers of this open learning system and making it a self service activity.
Many higher education universities and institutes are moving rapidly towards online
education and training system for the sake of profits as well as to serve society with
skilled people. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) took a remarkable
initiative in the area of online education and training by creating virtual campus facility
for students of its technology courses like BIT (Bachelor of Information Technology) and
ADIT (Advanced Diploma in Information Technology) which helps the university in
targeting more students in the market and develop a cordial relationship with them. The
objectives of a virtual campus are to improve access to advanced educational experiences


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by allowing students and instructors to participate in remote learning communities using
personal computers; and to improve the quality and effectiveness of education by using
the computer to support a collaborative learning process.

The Trainer modes for Online Education and Training are:
Online Education and Training using the Internet is also called Virtual Education or E-
Learning where the course is not taught in a traditional face to face classroom but through
computer network based learning mode.
1. Virtual Classroom: It is an interactive learning environment to improve access to
advanced educational experiences by allowing trainees and trainers to participate
in remote learning using computer networks.
2. Hypertext Courses: In these courses all material is provided electronically and
can be viewed with a browser where hyperlinks connect text, multimedia images
and exercises in a meaningful manner.
3. Video-based Courses: In this video streamlining technology is used to deliver
recorded lectures of the instructors or trainers for trainees.
4. Audio-based Courses: In this only sound track of the trainer is given to trainee
for the sake of lecture delivery.
5. Web-supported textbook Courses: These courses are based on specific
textbooks where students read and reflect chapters by themselves. Review
questions, topics for discussion, exercises, case studies, etc. are given chapterwise
on a website and discussed with the lecturer. Class meetings may be held to
discuss matters in a chat-room.
6. Animated Courses: It gives an enriched experience of learning to trainees by
animated movies or Power Point slides which provides gives retention of learning
to students.
Research Methodology
The study was conducted by collecting secondary data to address the research
objectives. For the purpose of research objectives web sites of different universities
were studied namely IGNOU, SMU, GOA University, MDU Rohtak, GJU Hisar, etc.
The study surveyed 10 different websites of national and international universities
which gave a comprehensive view of the E-Learning systems being used world wide.
This comprehensive view of E-Learning system divides the E-Learning pattern of the
universities in to two broad categories:


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Synchronous mode of E-Learning System: It involves the exchange of ideas
and information with one or more participants during the same period of time
and it is also called as Full-supported E-Learning system. These activities
occur with all participants joining at once with an online virtual class room
facility.
Asynchronous mode of E-Learning System: In this pattern of E-Learning
system, participants may engage in the exchange of ideas and information
without dependency of the other participant involvement at the same time. It
is also called as Partial-Supported E-Learning system.
The sample has been drawn by adopting stratified sampling and selecting the websites
randomly from above mentioned different categories of websites. The websites
selected in the survey for the study purpose is optimal mix of both the categories.
Findings
Some of the universities Nation-wide have started recognizing the needs of
E-learning system for better management of trainee and trainer relationship
for increasing business share and market opportunities. They had developed
functional competencies along with the leadership. For example IGNOU.
This university is into distance education and now they have combined the
distance education facility with more enriched experience of virtual campus.
This would give rich learning experience to a student targeting a distance
education course and encourages a two way communication between trainee
and trainer. It also falls into the category of Self Service Activity because the
trainee has to log-in to the system time to time for the knowledge gain.
Some of the universities Nation-wide have entered in to the E-learning
system partially and they are giving facility of online enrollment,
downloading of study materials and video lectures from their web-sites but
they are not giving full support of virtual classrooms etc. This would
decrease the burden of manual labour of enrollment of students and speed up
the system of providing the study material to the students. Here also the
study found the self service activity of getting enrolled with the university
and downloading the material.
Conclusion
The present piece of study leads us to the conclusion that Online Education and Training
is the requirement of modern education system. Customer Relationship Management is
the need of modern education system as the universities grow in number and their
appetite to capture and retain not only domestic but also global students. Online
Education and Training have the following advantages:
It offers interactive learning experience for a distance education learner.


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It is cost effective training.
Online help can be given to students any time and any where through
services such as e-counseling, online registration, online examination etc.
Mix and Match of Audio and Video learning enrich learner experience
and give him better retention of learning.
Speed-up communication between universities and trainees.
Ease of handling the student information by universities.
Collaborative mode of learning gives in-depth learning to trainees.
Customized course can be offered to the trainees.
All these activities mentioned above are based on the initiative of the trainee and so we
call it as Self-Service Activity.
Based on the study, a value chain model of E-Learning as self service activity is
suggested.

This above pictures highlights the various functions of E-Learning system which
includes:
1. Inbound logistics: Here, the Electronic Data Interchange methods E-learning
system is given place. The students are give Login-Ids and passwords for security
purpose.
2. Operations: It deals with Computed Aided or Electronic Aided methods of E-
Learning which includes Chatting, access to e-resources, Video conferencing and
on-line Tutorials etc.
3. Outbound Logistics: It deals with automated process of E-Learning System and
relates to accessibility any where and anytime.


66 | P a g e

4. Sales and Marketing: It deals with tie-ups with various industry and academic
exports for lecture and notes delivery which creates a positive picture of
university in the minds of learner and thereby helps in increasing the business and
gaining strategic advantages.
5. Service: It deals with error free and timely online delivery of lectures, material,
examination schedules, assignments, evaluation and result to the learner.
eCRM certainly is an invaluable tool for the universities aiming to expand their domestic
as well as global share in the field of online education and training. The education system
based on E-learning are so designed to motivate the learner / trainee and enrich the
learning experience in distance education mode as a Self Service activity. The availability
of and the ability to use the net infrastructure by the learner / trainee may be the deciding
factor of the success of online education and training services. So, this study further
enhances the scope of studying the factors affecting the success and effectiveness of
Online education and training which otherwise seems to be a very promising mode of
education in the future.


67 | P a g e

References:
Anton, J. 1996. Customer relationship management, Prentice Hall, New York.

Anton, J., Hoeck, M. 2002. e-business customer service, the Anton Press, Santa, Monica,
CA.
Ab Hamid & Kassim, 2004 Evaluating the adoption level of electronic customer
relationship management by telecommunication companies

Chandra, Satish, & Ted J. Strickland (2004) Technological differences between CRM and
eCRM, Issues in Information Systems, 5(2), 408-413.
C-H Park and Y-G Kim, A framework for dynamic CRM: linking marketing with
information strategy. Business Process Management Journal vol. 9 no. 5 (2003): 652-
671.
Furash, E. (1999), ``Internet strategy: why banks may be getting it wrong, and how to get
it right'', Journal of Retail Banking and Finance, Vol. 14.

Foster, Brian D. and John W. Cadogan (2000) Relationship Selling and Customer
Loyalty: An Empirical Investigation

Gefen, D. "Customer Loyalty in E-Commerce," 2002. Journal of the Association for
Information Systems (3) 27-51.

Gabarino, E., Johnson, M.S., 1999. The different roles of satisfaction, trust and
commitment in consumer relationship. Journal of Marketing 63 (2): 7087

Morais, Shanti A. (2010) eCRM: Striking the Balance Between Business and Privacy
Issues
Moon(1999), Connection network and optimization of interest metric for one to one
marketing
Miller, Roger (2002). The Legal and E-Commerce Environment Today (Hardcover ed. T.
Coltman, Why build a customer relationship management capability? Journal of
Strategic Information Systems 16 (2007): 302.
Turban et al., Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organizations in
the Digital Economy, 6th ed. ( John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008), 335.


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Zineldin,M(2000) Beyond Relationship Marketing: Technologicalship Marketing
Journal of financial services marketing vol.5


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A Case Analysis of Telecom Industry of China and India with
Focus on Cellular Subscriber base
By :- Sk Samim Ferdows
Abstract:
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had carried out a comparative study in 2005
on the status of telecom service sector of India and China. The comparison of
performance indicators between two fastest growing telecom markets help to draw
strategies for new investment and expansion of telecom networks, tariff and pricing of
retail and wholesale services, usage pattern and related capacity requirement etc. The
paper earlier published by the Authority was extensively used by policy makers,
academicians, investors and service providers etc. The paper had also drawn interest of
the media and was also reproduced in reputed journals. The Authority in continuation of
its endeavor to provide such benchmark studies is publishing this revised and more
extensive comparative study of performance indicators of Indian and Chinese Telecom
service sectors.
In this study paper financial/ economic indicators and regulatory indicators in China have
been compared with the Indian Telecom sector. The inputs for this paper on Chinese
telecom companies arc taken from Annual reports
Section-1
1.1 Overview of Chinese Telecom Industry:
China is now the world's largest telecom market. China has six key telecom service
providers viz. China Mobile Group, China Unicorn group, China Telecom group, China
Netcom group, China Railcom and China Satcom. AU Chinese telecom companies are
state owned. The total Chinese telecom revenues during 2005 were $72.70 billion,
representing an increase of 11.8lYcJ over the previous year. During 2005, 100 million
new subscribers were added- 38.68 million new fixed line users and 58.60 mobile users.
At the end of 2005, there were 740 million phone users mi11ion fixed line users 350 and
390 million mobile users.
At the end of 2005, the tele density for fixed line services was 27'Yc) and 30% for mobile
services. The total tele density was 57%. At the end of 2005, there were 37.5 million
broadband internet users. Net addition during 2005 was 12.63 million users.
Short message Services (SMS) remained a major contributor to telecom growth. About
304.65 billion massages were sent, an increase of 40% over the previous year. The total
revenue from SMS surpassed 30 billion Yuan (US$ 3.72 billion). Usage of other value-
added services (VAS) like multi message services (MMS), ring tone downloads also


70 | P a g e

increased.
1.2 Objectives of the study:
The study was undertaken with the following objectives:
1) To analyze the Comparison of subscriber base of China and India and coverage of
Telephone services in villages.
2) To measure the growth of telecom revenues in China and India.
3) To measure the growth Comparison of direct employment in China and India.
1.3 Methodology:
To compare the growth of coverage of Telephone services in villages and direct
employment in China and India I have used Bar Chart. I have also used t-test to measure
the significant difference between the subscriber base of China and India.
I have done a comparative study and used Bar chart to explore a quick idea about the real
picture in China and India. I have taken data from Annual reports of Chinese Telecom
companies and TRAI, China Daily and Dept. of Telecommunication of India to make a
comparison study and get a valid conclusion.
Section-2
2.1 Comparative Analysis:
a) Comparison of Indian and Chinese Telecom industry:
The Growth of mobile services in India over the past few years has been phenomenal.
Mobile subscribers arc growing at a CACI. (of around 85(% since 1999 but fixed link
subscribers arc not growing at a similar pace. Now over 4 million mobile subscribers arc
added every month. On the other hand China has registered a growth h of 16(% in the
mobile subscriber base in the year 2005 with monthly addition of 5 million subscribers
every month.
The Chinese fixed line services registered 12% growth during 2005. The expansion was
mainly on the wireless platform and now over 23% of fixed line subscribers are
connected through wireless local loop. Indian on the other hand registered an annual
growth of 2%.Summary of subscriber base of China and India is given below.
Table -2.1 about here

Graph-2.1 about here


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Graph-2.2 about here

Broadband Subscriber:
The monthly addition of broadband users in China is around 8.5 Lakhs per month against 1.3 lakh
in India.
Total broadband users in China and India are given in the following table:
Table.-2.2 about here

I Year ended 31
st
December
2 Year ended 31
st
March
# March 2006
3 At the Year ending 31
st
December 2005
4 At the Year ending 31
st
December 2006
5 Total of China Telecom and China Netcom
6 Average of last three month.
b) Coverage of Telephone services in Villages:
Telephone service is available in 971X) of villages of China against 89% in India. Comparisons
table is given below.

Table.-2.3 about here

c) Telecom Revenue:
Total telecom revenue of Chinese telecom companies increased from $ 65 billion to $ 72.70
billion during the calendar year 2005. Telecom revenue in India during 2005-06 was $19.50
bill1on. The comparative statement of growth of telecom revenues is given in the following table:


72 | P a g e

Average Revenue per User (ARPU):
ARPU in India and Chinese is comparable in CSM pre paid segment but ARPU for post segment
in China is much higher. ARPU for CDMA services are also higher in China in comparison to
India. ARPU for Basic Telephone Services is higher in India when compared to ARPU for Basic
Telephone in China. A comparison of ARPUs is summarized in the following table:

Graph -2.4 about here

Graph -2.4 about here
d) Minutes of Usages per Subscriber of Mobile (MOU):
The comparison of usage pattern of mobile cellular services in India and China is In the table
below. Usages of cell services arc much higher in India compared to China.
Minutes of Usage of GSM and CDMA based cell services in India are 32% and 70% respectively
higher when compared to Chinese services.
In spite of higher MOU the ARPU in India is lower than China for reason that tariffs in India are
lower.
10-For the year ending 31
st
December 2005
11 For the year ending 31
st
December 2006
12 based on China Telecom and China Netcom
13 based on China Unicom
14 based on China mobile and China Unicom

Table -2. 6 about here
A comparison of EBlTDA margins of India and China show that the Chinese companies are able


73 | P a g e

to generate higher rate of EBITDA. The comparison table is given below.
The capital employed per subscriber for the Basic Service is much lower when compared to India.
However, capital employed for the cellular segment is lower in India. Higher capacity utilization
in the mobile sector could be the reason for lower capital employed in the mobile segment.
Details are summarized in the following table:
Table 2.8 about here
Chinese Companies earn higher rate of return on the capital employed than Indian companies.
The returns on the capital employed for the previous financial year has declined for both
countries. Details have been summarized in the following table:

The capital investment for expansion/up gradation of telecom networks during 2005-06 by Indian
and Chinese companies is given in the following table. The Chinese companies have projected to
make investment to the tune of $ 23 billion during 2006. It is expected that investment by Indian
companies will also increase by at least 15%.
Indian mobile market is much more competitive when compared to the Chinese mobile market.
Higher competition is also reflective in the lower Indian ARPUs in spite of higher usage of
telecom services. The competition level has been compared using HHI Index of China and India
is given below:
The World Information Technology Report 2005 of World Economic Forum has ranked India at
40
th
position, China at 50
th
position in Networked Readiness Index Rankings 2005 in terms of
Network Readiness. As this indicates availability of opportunities that could result in greater
inflow in the telecom sector in India.
The picture of India & China is shown in the following diagram.
Graph 2.6 about here
e) Direct Employment in Telecom Sector


74 | P a g e

Comparison of direct employment is given below:
Table 2. 13 about here

Graph-2. 7 about here
China's corporate tax is 33% against 30% in India. The effective tax rates for telecom companies
in China were also estimated using actual payout of tax and found that it lies between 18% to
32%. The results are summarized in the following table:
In China a 3% business tax on telecom revenues is payable against 12.24% payable as service tax
in India. The results are summarized in the following table:

15 China Mobiles MOU
16 Based on China Mobile and China Unicom GSMs MOU
17 Average of all Mobile Operators
18 China Unicom CDMAs MOU
19 Weighted Average of all network services for the year ending 2005.
20 Average SMS in respect of GSM Cellular service providers for the quarter ending December
2005.
24 Based on BSNL and MTNL.
26 China Telecoms Capital Employed per Subscriber at the year ending.
27 BSNLs Capital employed per subscriber at the year ending
28 China Mobiles Capital employed per Subscriber at the year ending.
29 Average of all mobile operators as per accounting separation reports.
30 China Telecoms Return on Capital Employed (RoCE)
31 Based on BSNL and MTNL
32 HHI Index 1=Monopoly, 0=Pure Competition and > 0.50=moving towards competition


75 | P a g e

33 Networked Readiness Index (NRI) measures the propensity for countries to exploit the
opportunities offered by information and communications technology.
34 Effective tax rate means tax payable by the companies under Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT)
under section 115JB of the Income tax Ac, 1961 or tax payable after taking in to account the
benefit of section 801A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (applicability of provisions of Tax
Holidays)

The industry carries a burden of high levies
*Backbone spectrum charges extra GST Goods and service Tax
**Estimated from spectrum fees & revenue of China Mobile

Mobile Tariffs in India compared to global Benchmarks.

Average = 0.20
Graph 2.8 about here
Tariffs have fallen further to around 0.01 Levels
Section-3

3.1 Statistical Analysis:
Here we want to test the Hypothesis that the Null Hypothesis
a) H10: there is no significant difference between the
subscriber base of China and India in Cellular Line (Mn).
Against the alternative Hypothesis H11: there is significant difference between the


76 | P a g e

subscriber base of China and India in Cellular Line (Mn).

b) H20: there is no significant difference between the
subscriber base of China and India in Fixed Line (Mn).
subscriber base of China and India in Fixed Line (Mn).

c) H30: there is no significant difference between the
subscriber base of India Fixed line and India in Cellular
Line (Mn).
subscriber base of India Fixed line and India in Cellular
Line (Mn).
d) H40: there is no significant difference between the
subscriber base China Fixed and China in Cellular Line
(Mn).

subscriber base of China Fixed and China in Cellular
Line (Mn).

Paired Samples Statistics
Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean


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CHINA1 207.4000 10 108.6515 34.3586
INDIA1 32.6710 10 11.8984 3.7626

Pair Samples Correlations
N Correlation Sig.
CHINA1 &
INDIA1
10 .973 .000

Paired Samples Test
Differences t df
Mean Std.
Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
95%
Confidence
Interval of
the
Difference

Lower Upper
CHINA1 -
INDIA1
174.7290 97.1160 30.7108 105.2564 244.2016 5.690 9

Paired Samples Statistics
Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error
Mean

Pair 1 CHINAFXT 207.4000 10 108.6515 34.3586
CHINACEL 20.5850 10 30.7226 9.7154


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Pair 2 INDIAFXT 32.6710 10 11.8984 3.7626
INDIACEL 191.9000 10 153.1538 48.4315

Paired Samples Correlations
N Correlation Sig.
Pair 1 CHINAFXT &
CHINACEL
10 .841 .002
Pair 2 INDIAFXT &
INDIACEL
10 .972 .000

Paired Samples Test
Paired
Differences
t df Sig. (2-
tailed)

Mean Std.
Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
95%
Confidence
Interval of
the
Difference

Lower Upper
Pair 1 CHINAFX
T -
CHINACE
L
186.8150 84.4516 26.7059 126.4020 247.2280 6.995 9 .000
Pair 2INDIAFXT
-
INDIACEL
-159.2290 141.6154 44.7827 -260.5346 -57.9234 -3.556 9 .006

Section-4
Conclusion:
From T-testing the calculated value of t-statistic is greater than tabulated value of t-
statistic. Calculated value of t-statistic is 5.690 and tabulated value of t-statistic is 2.101


79 | P a g e

at 95% Confidence Interval Therefore H0 is not accepted so there is a significant
difference between the subscriber base of China and India.
Indian mobile market is much more competitive when compared to the Chinese mobile
market. From Table -16 we can conclude that Direct Employment in Telecom sector in
China is much higher than that of India. Chinese Telecom companies have employed
about 6 lakhs direct employee where as their Indian counterparts have employed about
4.30 lakhs direct employee. Turnover tax on telecom revenues in China is effectively less
than that of India. Service Tax GST in China is considerably less than that of India.
Mobile Tariffs charges in India are lowest when compared to global Benchmarks.
India has to develop a lot to exist the competitive market. India Government has to take
new policy & strategy to achieve a great success in the market.
Also we found that there is a high correlation between the subscriber base of India Fixed
line and India in Cellular and the subscriber base China Fixed and China in Cellular Line.


80 | P a g e

References:
Bhattacharya, R.N: Environmental Economics: An Indian Perspective, OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS (New Delhi) Published in India 2001.
Bhalla .A.S and Bifhani.P : Some Global Issues
Gujrati .D: Basics of Econometrics, International Editions 1995, by Mc-Graw-Hill Book Co.
Rauccher, M (1997), Environment and International Trade, New York: Oxford University Press.
www.cygnusindia.com ; Cygenus Business Consulting and Research, Vol.510; Economy &
Industry Monitor- West Bengal; October, 2005.
Annual reports of Chinese Telecom companies and TRAI.
China Daily Dated 14/03/ 2006 and Dept. of Telecommunication of India.
www.weforum.org
Appendix:
Tables:
Table-2.1
Comparison of subscriber base of China and India
Fixcd Line (Mn) Cellular Line (Mn)
Year China
1
India
2
I China1 India2
1997 70 14.54 15 0.34
1998 90 17.8 20 0.88
1991 110 21.59 40 1.2
2000 130 26.51 85 1.88
2001 180 32.44 145 3.58
2002 210 37.94 210 6.43


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2003 263 40.62 269 12.69
2004 312 42.58 335 33.6
2005 350 45.91 390 52.21
2006 359# 46.78 410# 93.04

Source: Notional Bureau of statistics of China, MIl and TRAI
Table-2.2

Particulars Unit China3 India 4
Broadband Connection Mn 10.16
5
1.13
Average Addition per month Mn 0.85 0.13
6

Source : Annual reports of Chinese Telecom companies and TRAI
Table-2.3
No of Villages with telephone services:
Particulars Unit China India
Total No of Village in
the Country
No 701031 607491
No. of Villages with
Telephone Services
No 6890000 539572
Percentage of
coverage
% 97 % 89 %

Source: China Daily Dated 14/03/ 2006 and Dept. of Telecommunication of India.

Table-2.4


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Year China India
2004-05 65 -
2005.06 72.7 19.5
Growth 11.8 % 14.7 % !

Table-2.5
Average Revenue per User (ARPU)
Particulars

China

India

US$ US$
2004-05 2005-06
10
2004-05 2005-06
11

ARPU Basic 9.14 8.54
12
15 14.5
ARPU Mobile-
CDMA
10.31 9.31
13
5.74 5.56
ARPU Mobile-
GSM
9.62 9.43
14
8.89 8
ARPU Mobile-
GSM post paid
20.18 19.98 20.34 14
ARPU Mobile-
GSM Prepaid
6.77 5.94 5.25 6

Source: Annual Reports of Chinese Telecom Companies 2005, TRAI.

Table-2.6
Minutes of Usage per subscriber (MOU)
Particulars Unit China India


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US$ US$
Year 2004-05 2005-06
10
2004-05 2005-06
11

MOU-GSM
Total
Minute 297
15
300
16
330 300
17

MOU-GSM
Pre-paid
Minute 194 214 233 308
MOU-GSM
Post-paid
Minute 517 524 599 675
MOU-CDMA
Total
Minute 292 277
18
NA 470
Source: Annual Reports, TRAI.

Table-2.7
Earnings before Income Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) Margin (%)
Particulars China India
Year Dec 04 Dec 05 Mar 05 Mar 06
Basic 53.59 50.48 44.13 41.36
24

Mobile 49.41 49.85 32.60 31.33

Table-2.8
Capital Employed per Subscriber (US $)
Basic 169 153
26
362
27
370


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Mobile 163 152
28
167
29
147

Table-2.9
Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) as %
Basic 14.79 13.25
30
10.92 8.10
31

Mobile 22.87 21.9 7.83 7.42

Table-2.10
Projected Capital expenditure
Year 2005 2005-06
Capital Expenditure (US $ Bn) 20 6
Proportion of Revenue (%) 28 31

Table-2.11
Competition Position (HHI Index
32
)
Fiscal Year 2004 2005 2004-05 2005-06
HHI Index in Basic Services 0.58 0.55 0.67 0.58
HHI Index in Mobile Services 0.40 0.36 0.16 0.15

Table -2.12


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The Networked Readiness Index Rankings (NRI Index
33
)
Country India China
Year 2005 2006-07 2005 2006-07
Score 0.23 4.06 - 0.01 3.68
Rank 40 44 50 59
Source: www.weforum.org
Table-2.13
Direct Employment in Telecom Sector

Year Dec 05 March 06
Direct Employment (no.s) 596002 429400

Table-2.14
Corporate Tax
Corporate Tax Rate 33% 30%
34

Effective Tax Rate 18%~32% 11.22~%33.66%

Table-2.15
Turnover Tax on Telecom Services
Particulars China (Business Tax) India (Service Tax)
Turnover Tax Rate 3% 12.24%
Table-2.16


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China India
Regulatory Charges % age of revenue % age of revenue
Service Tax GST 3% 10% + GST
License Fee Nil 3-10%
Spectrum Charge -0.5%*(China Mobile) 2 6 %**
USO Nil Incl in License Fee
Total Regulatory Charges 0.5% + 3% (Tax) 17% - 26% + GST
Source: COAI Pre-Budget Memorandum 2007-08
Table-2.17
Countries Call Charges per month in US $
Australia 0.24
Brazil 0.11
China 0.04
Switzerland 0.45
Japan 0.33
India 0.03
Source: COAI Pre-Budget Memorandum 2007-08

Graphs :
Graph-2.1


87 | P a g e

Graph-2.2

Graph-2.3
Fixed Line Subscribers In ( Mn)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Y
e
a
r
1
9
9
7
Y
e
a
r
1
9
9
8
Y
e
a
r
1
9
9
9
Y
e
a
r
2
0
0
0
Y
e
a
r
2
0
0
1
Y
e
a
r
2
0
0
2
Y
e
a
r
2
0
0
3
Y
e
a
r
2
0
0
4
Y
e
a
r
2
0
0
5
Y
e
a
r
2
0
0
6
S
u
b
s
c
r
i
b
e
r
s
(
M
n
)
China India
Subscriber base cellular line in China & India
0
200
400
600
Year
L
i
n
e

(
M
n
)
Cellular Line (Mn) China Cellular Line (Mn) India
Cellular Line (Mn) China 15 20 40 85 145 210 269 335 390 410
Cellular Line (Mn) India 0.34 0.88 1.2 1.88 3.58 6.43 12.69 33.6 52.21 93.04
Year19 Year19 Year19 Year20 Year20 Year20 Year20 Year20 Year20 Year20


88 | P a g e

Graph-2.4

Graph-2.5
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
China India
Coverage of Villages
Total No of Village in the Country No. of Villages with Telephone Services
Average Revenue Per User 2004-05
0
5
10
15
20
25
ARPU Basic ARPU
Mobile-
CDMA
ARPU
Mobile-GSM
ARPU
Mobile-GSM
post paid
ARPU
Mobile-GSM
Prepaid
R
e
v
e
n
u
e

i
n

U
S

$
China India


89 | P a g e

Graph-2.6

Graph-2.7
Average revenue Per User 2005-06
0
5
10
15
20
25
ARPU Basic ARPU
Mobile-
CDMA
ARPU
Mobile-GSM
ARPU
Mobile-GSM
post paid
ARPU
Mobile-GSM
Prepaid
r
e
v
e
n
u
e

i
n

U
S

$
China India
Networked Readiness Index Ranking in China &
India
0.23
4.06
-0.01
3.68
40
44
50
59
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
S
c
o
r
e

a
n
d

R
a
n
k
i
n
g
Score Rank
Score 0.23 4.06 -0.01 3.68
Rank 40 44 50 59
2005 2006-07 2005 2006-07
India China


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Graph-2.8

Mobile Tariffs in India compared to global Benchmarks. Call Charges per
month in US $
0.24
0.11
0.04
0.45
0.33
0.03
0
0.5
Country
C
a
l
l

C
h
a
r
g
e
Mobile Tariffs in India compared to global Benchmarks. Call Charges per month in US $
Mobile Tariffs in India
compared to global
Benchmarks. Call
Charges per month in US
0.24 0.11 0.04 0.45 0.33 0.03
Australia Brazil China Switzerla Japan India
Direct Employment (no.s)
Direct
Employment
(no.s), 58%
Direct
Employment
(no.s), 42%
China 5-Dec India 6-Mar


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Software Reliability for a Reliable Software System
By: - Babita and Naveen Verma
Abstract
Now a days software problems are the main causes of system failure i.e. both hardware
and software failure. There are many consequences of software failures and the most
common is due to software reliability. For a reliable and consistent system, very high
reliability is expected as the enormous investment and the credibility of the software
developer is at stake. Studies have shown that reliability is regarded as one of the most
vital attribute by potential customers. Generally all softwares developed will have a
significant number of defects, thus programs must be tested and debugged, until
sufficiently high reliability is achieved. In order to estimate as well as to predict the
reliability of software systems, failure data need to be precisely measured during software
development and operational phases. Software Reliability is the probability of failure-free
software operation for a specified period of time in a specified environment. Software
Reliability is also an important factor affecting system reliability. It differs from
hardware reliability in that it reflects the design perfection, rather than manufacturing
perfection. The high complexity of software is the major contributing factor of Software
Reliability problems.
The IEEE defines reliability as "The ability of a system or component to perform its
required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time." For the project
and software development managers, reliability is equated to correctness and precision,
that is, they look to testing and the number of "bugs" found and fixed. Finally, we
discussed here about software reliability and different types of models, factors and
approaches for software reliability..
1. Introduction:
Reliability of a software product essentially denotes its trustworthiness or dependability.
Alternatively, reliability of a software product can also be defined as the probability of
the product working correctly over a given period of time. It is obvious that a software
product having a large number of defects is unreliable. It is also clear that the reliability
of a system improves, if the number of defects in it is reduced. However, there is no
simple relationship between the observed system reliability and the number of latent
defects in the system. For example, removing errors from parts of software which are
rarely executed makes little difference to the perceived reliability of the product. It has
been experimentally observed by analyzing the behavior of a large number of programs
that 90% of the execution time of a typical program is spent in executing only 10% of the
instructions in the program. These most used 10%instructions are often called the core of


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the program. The rest 90% of the program statements are called non-core and are
executed only for 10% of the total execution time. It therefore may not be very surprising
to note that removing60% product defects from the least used parts of a system would
typically lead to only 3% improvement to the product reliability. It is clear that the
quantity by which the overall reliability of a program improves due to the correction of a
single error depends on how frequently is the corresponding instruction executed. Thus,
reliability of a product depends not only on the number of latent errors but also on the
exact location of the errors. Apart from this, reliability also depends upon how the
product is used, i.e. on its execution profile. If it is selected input data to the system such
that only the correctly implemented functions are executed, none of the errors will be
exposed and the perceived reliability of the product will be high. On the other hand, if the
input data is selected such that only those functions which contain errors are invoked, the
perceived reliability of the system will be very low.
Software reliability is comprised of three activities:
1. Error prevention
2. Fault detection and removal
3. Measurements to maximize reliability, specifically measures that support the first
two activities
Software Reliability
It is becoming increasingly impossible to create a software product that is generous in
the sense of simultaneously providing high quality, rapid delivery, and low cost. The
view that such characteristics are simply desired objectives to be achieved is obsolete.
For example, it would be nice to have programs that are correct, but in this real world
we must settle for something less. The need for trade-offs is pressing, and the
characteristics of the software must be carefully selected to meet customer needs.
This means that measurement and prediction of software product characteristics is
essential before going on to what exactly do you mean by software reliability, well
see what is the importance of it what is the Importance of Software Reliability
It has been already indicated that three of the most important software product
characteristics are quality, cost and schedule. Note that these are primarily, user-
oriented rather than developer-oriented attributes. Quantitative measures exist for the
latter two characteristics, but the quantification of quality has been more difficult. It is
important, however because the absence of a concrete measure for software quality
generally means that quality will suffer when it competes for attention against cost
and schedule. In fact, this absence may be the principal reason for the well-known
existence of quality problems in many software products. Reliability is probably the
most important of the characteristics inherent in the concept software quality. It is
intimately connected with defects, and the defects represent the largest cost element
in programming. Software reliability concerns itself with how well the software


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functions meet the requirements of the customer. We can define software reliability
simply as the probability that the software will work without failure for a specified
period of time.
Hardware reliability vs. software reliability
Reliability behavior for hardware and software are very different. For example, hardware
failures are inherently different from software failures. Most hardware failures are due to
component wear and tear. A logic gate may be stuck at 1 or 0,or a resistor might short
circuit. To fix hardware faults, one has to either replace or repair the failed part. On the
other hand, a software product would continue to fail until the error is tracked down and
either the design or the code is changed. For this reason, when hardware is repaired its
reliability is maintained at the level that existed before the failure occurred; whereas
when a software failure is repaired, the reliability may either increase or decrease
(reliability may decrease if a bug introduces new errors). To put this fact in a different
perspective, hardware reliability study is concerned with stability (for example, inter-
failure times remain constant). On the other hand, software reliability study aims at
reliability growth (i.e. inter-failure times increase).
Reliability as a Quality Attribute
There are many different models for software quality, but in almost all models, reliability
is one of the criteria, attribute or characteristic that is incorporated. ISO 9126 [1991]
defines six quality characteristics, one of which is reliability. IEEE Std 982.2-1988 states
"A software reliability management program requires the establishment of a balanced set
of user quality objectives, and identification of intermediate quality objectives that will
assist in achieving the user quality objectives." Since reliability is an attribute of quality,
it can be concluded that software reliability depends on high quality software. Building
high reliability software depends on the application of quality attributes at each phase of
the development life cycle with the emphasis on error prevention, especially in the early
life cycle phases. Metrics are needed at each development phase to measure applicable
quality attributes. IEEE Std 982.2-1988 includes the diagram in Figure 1, indicating the
relationship of reliability to the different life cycle phases.


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Figure 1: Quality Factors Impacting Reliability
In focusing on error prevention for reliability, we need to identify and measure the
quality attributes applicable at different life cycle phases. As discussed previously, we
need to specifically focus on requirements, design, implementation, and test phases.
1.1 What are the main factors that affect the reliability of software?
A number of factors affect the reliability of a software product; however they can be
grouped under a few key areas. Firstly, cost (or budget) of the project will dictate the
resources available for accomplishing the project goals. Producing reliable software
costs money. In some cases, it can cost an exorbitant amount of money for software with
an extremely high need for reliability such as space shuttle software.
Secondly, the time allotted to a project can have a large impact on its quality. Often
business software is written with a very tight schedule in order to be first to market with a
new idea. Microsofts adoption of the Good Enough Software approach has led them
to dominant market position while ensuring their products are not of very high quality.
Other factors dictating software product quality include the people involved in the
project. By getting the good and experienced team members, the chances of the project
succeeding are greatly increased. As well, choice of technology can have a large impact
on product quality. By choosing new and untested technologies, a project is likely to face
more challenges than one using well-known technologies.
1.2 How can one determine the current reliability of the software under development?
The models discussed above all require that one have an existing data set from the
running system. However in determining the reliability of a software system currently
under development, one could use early life-cycle models to estimate reliability. These


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models typically rely upon information gathered during the requirements and design
stages as well as measures of staff effort, code size, and error injection rates and trends.
The key point for determining software reliability on newly developed software is that
one does not have a previous history of test metrics to rely upon. Therefore the estimates
of reliability will naturally have a wider margin than mature products.
1.3 How can one determine whether the product is reliable enough to be released?
The first task to determine adequate reliability in an SRE sense is to define the necessary
level of reliability required. Each software system will have different reliability needs
based upon the market, customers, and the environment of the system.
To clarify the terminology, a failure is a user-oriented concept which represents a
departure from expected system behavior. A system needs to have its failures
categorized into failure severity classes in order to determine the failure intensity
objective.
Having defined the failure intensity objective, an engineer shall make use of the
techniques of fault tolerance, fault removal, and fault prevention to meet the objective.
Fault prevention efforts center on not allowing faults to enter the system through design
and requirements reviews among others. Fault removal includes code reviews and
testing, while fault tolerance covers techniques such as redundancy.
Once the reliability goals have been addressed, the next stage of SRE involves
developing the operational profiles of system use. An operational profile consists of the
initiators of the operation and a consolidated operations list with the occurrence rates and
probabilities for each. Having a realistic operational profile of the system is invaluable
for allocating test resources in later stages.
After generating the operational profile, one must prepare for testing by generating test
profiles consisting of test cases. The number of test cases is dictated by both the budget
and staff time allocated to the project for quality assurance. The test director needs to
allocate the overall number of test cases among the system to best leverage the test effort.
The majority of the test cases cover the developed software product with a smaller
number allocated to supporting hardware and the operating system. As well a certain
number of tests are allocated to features, some to regression, and some to load testing.
Having devised a test plan which best covers the most critical and/or frequently used
features of the system; one will execute the test strategy. Various levels of testing are
preformed including unit testing, integration testing, external function testing, system
testing, acceptance testing, installation testing, and regression testing. From all these test
runs, it is possible to determine the true failure intensity of the system as it currently
stands. One can then compare this to the failure intensity objective and determine
whether the goal has been met. If the reliability goal has been met, the system is ready to
be released.


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3. Software Reliability Models
In the field of software reliability engineering, a number of models have been proposed
for predicting the failure intensity of systems over time. The ability to predict failure
intensity rates in the future is important as it allows for industry practitioners to better set
release schedules.
These models make use of simplifying assumptions in order to achieve their goals. They
assume that the chance of discovering a failure in the system at any given time follows a
random distribution. As such, it can be modeled using statistical random distributions.
Another assumption is that the observed failure intensity for any time interval is
independent of all other intervals.
a. Classification Approaches
Musa has produced a classification scheme for software reliability models which
considers the following traits of each model:
- Time unit: Whether the natural time is measured as calendar or execution time.
- Category: Whether the model allows for a finite or infinite number of failures in
an infinite time.
- Type: The distribution of the failures over the time interval.
- Class: Functional form of the failure intensity which applies to finite failure
category models only.
- Family: Functional form of the failure intensity which applies to the infinite
failure models only.
A number of models have been proposed which cover a wide range of scenarios. In
terms of practical use however, Musa argues that only those using execution time as the
time domain are of use. As well, he argues that a model must not be overly complicated
to apply such as the Bayesian model of Littlewood-Verrall. Empirical evidence based
upon industrial applications has demonstrated that the Musa Basic model and the Non-
homogenous Poisson Process model meet these criteria. Both of these models are
exponential failure class models.
4. Exponential Failure Class Models
This class of models includes those who assume a finite number of failures will occur in
an infinite time. As well, they all make use of execution time as their natural time
domain. The following will consider the mathematical representation of the model, its
assumptions, data requirements, and discuss possible usage scenarios.


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a. Musa Basic Model
The Musa model is named Basic as it provides a simple approach to modeling failure
intensity. It assumes that the execution time between failures is exponentially distributed.
As well the per-fault hazard rate is assumed to be constant.
The failure intensity () is a function of failure intensity at the start of execution (
o
), the
expected number of failures at a given time (), and the total number of failures
occurring in an infinite time (v
o
).
() =
o
1

o
|
\

|
.
|
Given this formulation, it is clear the Musa Basic model requires existing failure data be gathered
from a running system such as a beta-test in order to be applied. This model is particularly
recommended for use in a majority of industry situations by its author. He stresses its
applicability to a wide variety of software projects as evidenced by its usefulness in a number of
efficacy trials in industry performed by many researchers listed in the Musa text. The Basic
model meets the goals defined by Musa for an effective model in that is widely applicable,
simple, computes useful quantities, and is based on sound assumptions.
5. Reliability metrics
The reliability requirements for different categories of software products may be different. For
this reason, it is necessary that the level of reliability required for a software product should be
specified in the SRS (software requirements specification) document. In order to be able to do
this, some metrics are needed to quantitatively express the reliability of a software product. A
good reliability measure should be observer-dependent, so that different people can agree on the
degree of reliability a system has. For example, there are precise techniques for measuring
performance, which would result in obtaining the same performance value irrespective of who is
carrying out the performance measurement. However, in practice, it is very difficult to formulate
a precise reliability measurement technique. The next base case is to have measures that correlate
with reliability. There are six reliability metrics which can be used to quantify the reliability of
software products.

A) Rate of occurrence of failure (ROCOF). ROCOF measures the frequency of


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occurrence of unexpected behavior (i.e. failures). ROCOF measure of a software
product can be obtained by observing the behavior of a software product in operation
over a specified time interval and then recording the total number of failures
occurring during the interval.
B) Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). Once failure occurs, some time is required to fix the
error. MTTR measures the average time it takes to track the errors causing the failure
and to fix them.
C) Mean Time between Failure (MTBR).MTTF and MTTR can be combined to get the
MTBR metric: MTBF = MTTF + MTTR. Thus, MTBF of 300 hours indicates that
once a failure occurs, the next failure is expected after 300 hours. In this case, time
measurements are real time and not the execution time as in MTTF.
D) Probability of Failure on Demand (POFOD).Unlike the other metrics discussed, this
metric does not explicitly involve time measurements. POFOD measures the
likelihood of the system failing when a service request is made. For example, a
POFOD of 0.001 would mean that 1 out of every 1000 service requests would result
in a failure.
6. Conclusions
Software reliability engineering uses quantitative measurement to increase the efficiency of the
testing effort. By developing operational profiles of the systems use, SRE requires that trade-
offs between time, cost, and quality be made explicitly for the project. There is still much room
for improvement of quality assurance practices within the software development industry and
software reliability engineering provides a set of practices that is certain to help. A key challenge
to software reliability engineering however is its reliance on heavyweight documentation
processes; particularly in the face of the Agile development movement.
Metrics to measure software reliability do exist and can be used starting in the requirements
phase. At each phase of the development life cycle, metrics can identify potential areas of
problems that may lead to problems or errors. Finding these areas in the phase they are developed
decreases the cost and prevents potential ripple effects from the changes, later in the development
life cycle. Metrics used early can aid in detection and correction of requirement faults that will
lead to prevention of errors later in the life cycle. The cost benefits of finding and correcting


99 | P a g e

problems in the requirements phase has been demonstrated to be at least a factor of 14, making a
strong argument for pursuing this approach and building in reliability starting at the requirements
phase.
For any software industry, achieving software reliability is the key task. Achieving Software
reliability is hard because the complexity of the software tends to be high. Reliability is an
attribute of quality and software quality can be measured .So reliability depends on high software
quality. So at each development phase, some quality attributes are applied and the reliability and
quality of the software can be improved by applying software metrics at each of these
development phases. This metrics measures software reliability in Requirements, Design and
coding, and testing phases.


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6 References
Musa, John. Software Reliability Engineering. McGraw-Hill. 1998
Far, B.H. Course Notes. SENG 635: Software Reliability and Testing. Date Accessed:
February 2005.
Software Metrics and Reliability by Linda Rosenburg, Ted Hammer, Jack Shaw
satc.gsfc.nasa.gov/support/ISSRE_NOV98/ software_metrics_and_reliability.html - 26k
IEEE Standard 610.12-1990 Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology
Kitchenham, Barbara, Pfleeger, Shari Lawrence, Software Quality: The Elusive Target,
IEEE Software 13, 1 (January 1996) 12-21.
Gillies, A.C., Software Quality, Theory and management, Chapman Hall Computing
Series, London, UK, 1992.
IEEE Standard 982.2-1987 Guide for the Use of Standard Dictionary of Measures to
Produce Reliable Software.
NASA Software Assurance guidebook, NASA GSFC MD, Office of Safety and Mission
Assurance, 1989.


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Approaches towards Anytime, Anywhere, Anybody Learning
By : -Anju Sharma and Sonam Singh
Abstract
With the explosive growth of World Wide Web (WWW); Web-based educational system
are coming into force to upgrade the quality of education. There are numerous ways to
teach and study, but learning is the ultimate key and goal for any educational system. A
novel form of WWW-based education is E-learning. E-learning has been advanced to
educate conventional courses through web-based training and distance learning in a fresh
form. To accomplish Anytime, Anywhere, Anybody Learning formally known as AAAL;
this paper analyzes different approaches to support E-learning namely: Multi-agent
approach, Adaptive E-Learning Approach, Semantic Web-based Educational Systems in
real terms. AAAL is a meaningful adaptation towards the goals of learners. The drive
behind AAAL analysis is realization of interoperability between adaptive learning
systems; and the facilitation of adaptively supported, distributed learning activities.

Keywords: WWW (World Wide Web), E-learning, AAAL (Anytime, Anywhere,
anybody learning), AIED (Artificial intelligence in education), SWBES
(Semantic Web Based Educational System), Semantic Web Services (SWS).
1. Introduction:
World Wide Web is an influential means for research and education. It is used to promote
Web-based educational systems to make better quality of educational services. A novel
form of WWW-based education is E-learning. This has been advanced to educate
conventional courses through web-based training and distance learning in a fresh form
[Vouk et al., 1999]. The main motive of E-learning is to provide effortless access to
learning from its resources to realize AAAL (i.e. Anytime, Anywhere, Anybody
Learning) [Bittencourt et al. 2008a]. It is not confined to this but is also concerned to
sustain features like personal definition of learning goals, synchronous & asynchronous
communication and collaboration between learners themselves along with their
instructors. Recently, Web-based learning systems incorporate Artificial Intelligence in
Education (AIED) after replacing the traditional Computer Aided Instruction (CAI)
approach.
1.1 Artificial Intelligence in Educational (AIED):
A computer plays an important role in education to prop up E-learning. Initially,
Computer Aided Instruction and Microworlds were used to educate students with a set of
learning objects but the instruction was not individualistic according to learners


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requirement. So, Intelligent CAI (ICAI) systems were used to impart individualized
instruction which employ students in a dialogue game. Afterwards, intelligent tutoring
system and interactive learning environments are used as an AIED system which helps to
interact with a student or a collection of students.
Designing of an AIED systems rely on interaction between two entities i.e. a
machine/AIED System and a human. This interaction process may require others agents
(or an environment) with an intent to help them in decision making. Each entity must
make a decision about what and how to interact with the other player. For the fulfillment
of these requirements a viable model, a Multi-Agent AIED System has been proposed as
shown in Figure I [Jennings 2001] which depicts that Multi-agent AIED system improves
interaction process and facilitates adaptation to a student or a group of student by taking
into account more than two entities. Multi-agent AIED system extends educational
interaction with a set of students or an environment to perform tasks with the help of
knowledge support. Multiple users and environment, interacts with each other through a
certain protocol which may act as an interface.
Similarly, Figure II exhibits an Adaptive E-learning system to facilitate adaptive
interactions between students, environment and AIED systems. AIED population is
specifically interested in the combination of two approaches of Web-based educational
systems namely, AIED systems and E-learning systems. AIED Systems uses artificial
intelligence practices to provide personalized interactions to improve the learning and
problem solving processes. E-Learning systems, improves interaction process between
multiple users and environment with the use of different E-learning tools which may
provide better service for learners to adapt knowledge, goals and interests of the learners.
There are many E-learning systems, but they provide only the same materials to all
students regardless of individual ability. However, the students may have very different
goals, backgrounds, knowledge levels and learning capabilities. Adaptive E-learning
systems try to solve these problems by altering the presentation of material to suit each
individual student.
2. Adaptive E-learning Systems:
An Adaptive E-learning system has the capability to adapt individuals needs and is
influenced by characteristics such as previous knowledge, learning styles, background,
etc. of a particular user and provides individualized instructions to each student. There
are various types of Adaptive E-learning systems:
2.1 Types of Adaptations:
Instructional Model Adaptation: In this type, at project time, the course author
specify features a user may have, different content, activities and access to
services. At execution time, the student model is verified that whether referred
content, activities and services will be provided to the student as per
specifications.


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Adaptive Interactions: This type offers support to the students and the tutor
during interaction in a certain course. User support is provided by using suitable
approaches for adaptive interactions like Intelligent Learning Systems (ILS)
approaches and Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL).
Presentation Adaptation: This type builds the presentation for specific user
learning. It provides a different user interface for each student on the basis of
particular adaptation the user has customized including the system learning from
users previous interactions.
To generate educational systems that are more personalized, adaptable and intelligent; a
new system came into existence which is termed as Semantic Web-based Educational
Systems (SWBES). It is the name given by the AI in education community to generate
educational systems that use resources available on the Web through standard based
technologies in order to accomplish AAAL: Anytime, Anywhere, Anybody Learning.
3. Semantic Web-based Educational Systems (SWBES)
Semantic Web is the burning research and development issue in AI community as well as
in Internet community. It is about making the Web more understandable by machines.
SW broadens the classical Web by offering a semantic structure of web pages to give
support to multiple users to understand the content. Semantic Web provides an interface
to provide interaction between students and the Web environment and give personalized
learning material and other services to students [Bittencourt et al. 2008b].
3.1 Three basic factors for foundation of Educational Semantic Web
Competence for effective information storage and retrieval.
Competence for non-human autonomous agents to supplement learning and
information retrieval of human beings.
Competence of web to support, open out and enhance communications
capabilities of humans [Anderson and Whitelock 2004].

3.2 Components of Semantic Web-based Educational Systems (SWBES)
Components of Semantic Web-based Educational Systems have been depicted in Figure
III. The important terminologies used in this figure are briefly explained as below:
Ontologies: It is a major component of the Semantic Web which may be defined
as a representation of a shared conceptualization of a particular domain.
Ontologies describe web data and allow interaction between data in different
formats [Shadbolt et al. 2006]. This assure interoperability between educational
systems and means to solve complex problems like knowledge representation,
knowledge sharing and application reuse, annotation and search of learning
objects, personalization of learning content etc. [Bittencourt et al. 2008b].
Tools: A system must provide a number of sophisticated tools to different users
for interaction and to perform various tasks. The kinds of tools that can be


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developed and used in an educational system are educational tools, tools to
support semantic web and administrative tools etc.
Semantic Web Services (SWS): Semantic Web Services play a vital role in
bringing closer to its users, agents and tools; according to their interest. It
provides an option for automating the integration of activities through creation,
automatic discovering, and automatic composition [Brambilla et al. 2007, Al-
Masri and Mahmoud 2007].
Intelligent Agents: Agents are responsible to ensure the automatization of the
activities, dynamic evolution of the requirements, and so on. Agents provide
interaction between the features of the system and its multiple users; with respect
to their roles e.g. discover new knowledge about users, interoperation content
between applications, content personalization of users etc.
Semantic Web Environment: It represents the interaction environment available
to discover, browse, select, and invoke resources on the Web according to several
technologies and architectures semantically described. Remarkable efforts are
going on to represent information on the Web so that computers can recognize
and manipulate any kind of task [Bittencourt et al. 2009].

5. Conclusion:
This paper presents steps towards web-based educational systems. E-Learning systems
attempt to provide better service for learners by adapting knowledge, goals, and interests
of the learners. Semantic Web Ontologies is an approach of E-learning have the ability to
view the student's learning strategies and adapt their learning requirements observed
during interaction with the system. Web-based learning systems incorporated AIED to
further explore the benefits and opportunities by developing new tools and methodologies
to improve AAAL.

References:


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Anderson, T. and Whitelock, D. (2004), The educational semantic web: visioning and
practicing the future of education, Journal pf Interactive Media in Education - JIME,
7:115.
Aroyo, L. and Dicheva, D. (2004), The new challenges for e-learning: The educational
semantic web.Educational Technology and Society, 7(4):5969.
Bittencourt, I. I., Costa, E., Soares, E., and Pedro, A. (2008a), Towards a new generation
of web-based educational systems: The convergence between artificial and human agents.
IEEE Multidisciplinary Engineering Education Magazine, 3(1):1724.
Bittencourt, I. I., Isotani, S., Costa, E., and Mizoguchi, R. (2008b), Researchs directions
on semantic web and education, Scientia Journal, 19(1):5966.
Bittencourt, I. I., Costa, E., Silva, M., and Soares, E. (2009), A computational model for
developing semantic web-based educational systems, Knowledge Based System,
Journal, Special Issue on AI and Blended Learning.
Brambilla, M., Ceri, S., Facca, F. M., Celino, I., and Cerizza, D. (2007), Model-driven
design and development of semantic web services applications, ACM Transactions on
Internet Technology (TOIT), 8(1):3.
Brooks, C., Greer, J., Melis, E., and Ullrich, C. (2006), Combining its and elearning
technologies: Opportunities and challenges, In 8th International Conference on
Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS).
Devedzic, V. (2006). Semantic Web and Education. Springer, 1 edition.
Devedzic, V. (2003), Key issues in next-generation web based education, IEEE
Transaction on Education, 3(33):339349.
Dietze, S., Gugliotta, A., and Domingue, J. (2007), Context-adaptive learning designs by
using semantic web services, Journal of Interactive Media in Education (Adaptation and
IMS Learning Design), 3.
Gasevic, D., Jovanovic, J., and Devedzic, V. (2004), Enhancing learning object content
on the semantic web, In ICALT 04: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference
on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT04), pages 714716, Washington, DC,
USA. IEEE Computer Society.
http://www.elearningadaptive.com/
Jennings, N. (2001), An agent-based approach for building complex software systems,
COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM, 44(4):3541.
Koper, E. J. R. (2001), Modeling units of study from a pedagogical perspective - the
pedagogical metamodel behind eml, In Open University of The Netherlands.


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Mizoguchi, R. (2004), Tutorial on ontological engineering - part 2: Ontology
development, tools and language, New Generation Computing, 22(1):6196.
Shadbolt, N., Lee, T. B., and Hall, W. (2006), The semantic web revisited, IEEE
Intelligent Systems, 21(3):96101.
VOUK, M.A.; BITZER, D.L. and KLEVANS, R. L. 1999, Workflow and end-user
quality of service issues in web-based education, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and
Data Engineering, 11(4):673-687.
Figures :
Figure I. The Multi-agent Approach[Jennings 2001]
Figure II. The Adaptive E-Learning Approach[Mizoguchi and Bourdeau 2000, Brooks et
al. 2006, Bittencourt et al. 2008a].


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Figure III. Semantic Web-based Educational Systems Approach [Bittencourt et al.
2008b].


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S.No. Author Category Organisation
1 Anju Sharma Prof. Agarwal College, Ballabgarh
2 B Rose Kavitha Dr. CMRIT Bangalore
3 Babita Prof. D. A. V., Centenary College, Faridabad
4 D.M. Gharge Prof. Swami Vivekanand Mahavidyalaya, Udgir
5 Dinesh Chandra Dr. Nuva College of Engg. , Nagpur(M.S)
6 M. Sunderrajan Mr. Tata Consultancy Services
7 Manpreet Kaur Prof.
NGF College of Engineering & Technology, Palwal,
Haryana
8 Maya Salimath G Ms. Rajarajeswari College of Engineering Bangalore
9 Naveen Verma Prof. M. R. International University, Faridabad
10 Neeraj Chopra Prof.
Haryana
11 P.M.Rewatkar Prof. Om College of Engg., Wardha(M.S)
12 S. V. Halse Dr. Karnataka Women University, Bijapur
13 Sharat Kaushik Dr.
Haryana
14 Sk Samim Ferdows Prof. Management Institute of Durgapur , W.B
15 Sonam Singh Prof. D. A. V., Centenary College, Faridabad
16 Sweta A. Kahurke Prof. Om College of Engg., Wardha(M.S)
17 V.V.R.Raman Dr. Asmara College of Health Science, Asmara, Eritrea
18 Veena Tewari Dr. College of Business & Economics, Halhale, Eritrea
19 Victor Anandkumar Dr. School of Management, Pondicherry University
20 Vijay D. Rughwani Prof. Om College of Engg., Wardha(M.S)

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