Language and Culture in New Zealand Organization Research Paper

Language and Culture in New Zealand Organization - Research Paper Example According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that various languages are spoken in the country where some are officially recognized, and others are not. These diverse languages bring about different cultures and influence the organization structure of the country. New Zealand is located in the Southwest of the Pacific Ocean. The country is mainly made up of two landmasses namely the South and North Islands. Several ethnic groups can be found in New Zealand, which includes the Maori, Europeans, Asians, and Pacific Islander among others. The country's official languages are Maori, English and the New Zealand sign language. English can be termed as the main business language, as it is spoken by 98 % of the citizens this can be attributed to the British Commonwealth ties. Maori is considered a Polynesian language which can be compared to languages spoken in other Pacific Cultures such as Tongan, Samoan and Hawaiian. As per the census done in 2006, more than 157,000 peopl e in the country speak Maori. This language has existed in New Zealand culture from as early as the country’s discovery. Maori people were the first to get to New Zealand and were later followed by the European settlers. However, it was only after passing of the 1986 Maori Language Act that the language was formally recognized as an official language. The use and the development of Maori language is consistently encouraged by the New Zealand language Commission. English and Maori are used all over the country in varied media outlets especially in radio and television programs. As apparent in most regions of the world where cultures have intermixed, Both English and Maori cultures have influenced each other. Various words have been absorbed into the vocabulary of the two languages. There are quite a number of differences in the above cultures especially when tribal circles are involved.

Life Span and Human Growth Development Assignment

Life Span and Human Growth Development - Assignment Example Erick Erikson is one of the reputable psychologists who provided convincible structure and elaboration of the concepts. Adequate understanding of growth stages such as those of Erick Erikson is important to counselors in shaping and designing effective treatment approach (Ungar, 2011) Client: as young child in his early childhood years, I struggled to overcome shame and doubts and at the same time, work towards achieving autonomy. These manifested through activities such as struggling to carry loads that were either loads or desire to things in my own way despite being a child. Client: I consider 18 years as the earliest time a child should be independent of the parents. The earliest I will part ways with my parents will be when I attain 22 years old and probably employed to be able to sustain my needs. Client: being adolescent is difficult. This relates to the availability of many vices ready targeting the adolescents. Societies also tend to profile adolescence as a stage characterized with vigor and violence. Client: as I said earlier, adolescence is a huge responsibility to bear considering the numeracy of challenges including powerful peer pressure that leads people into doing things that they would never wish to do. To this point of interview, the counselor is trying to explore the basic information and details regarding the client. In response, the client depicts to have undergone through some aspects of Erick Erikson’s of growth in human beings. The client has indicated to have great trust in the members of his family bewaring their abundant loving nature on the client. According to Erick Erickson, proper feeding is the basic way that an adult earn the trust of an infant (Magnavita, 20050. The client has also hinted that he used to struggle for autonomy during his early years of growth while tackling shame. Erick explained that during early childhood, children struggle to develop

The Wire Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

The Wire - Research Paper Example The â€Å"Dickensian aspect† as an aspect in the series, The Wire is a writing from the previous weeks of the current situation and issue of the series. It is extracted for season 1-4/episode 6 of the series and it majorly dwells on an explanation as to the mystery behind the survival of Omar in the three stories that falls from the three main actors of the series, Snoop, Chris and Michael. It further goes ahead to give an explanation on the bizarre around the interference on the tap of Marlo’s cell phone. In the series, this aspect plays a critical part to the future development of the series and this informs my choice to discuss it as the subject of this paper ("The Dickensian Aspect" | The Wire | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club."). In the first instance, Omar is involved in the crew by Marlo a group which is involved in providing a way of bringing together a scene; the scene later becomes the most fatal injury to a man who is future oriented. Snoop goes ahead to do an inquiry as a concerned individual about the resultant aforementioned injury to Omar a situation which would have resulted to their own doubts even in the case where Omar was actually at the hospitals leave alone now that he is not there and that it is a mere stage managed scenario. The actor, Omar as it turns out is hidden under the noses of the individuals purporting to be looking for the supposed injured Omar. Since Omar fell and his legs got shattered, he finds himself inside janitor’s closet of the same building from which he leapt and this enables the character to hide away from the view of the majority or public. From the episode in the week before this setting a spider man shit is reported to have vanished to avoid keeping up with O mar’s legendary act. This is a highly commendable act as less of the times do we witness such forms of acts taking place in the real world settings. Even though there is more to what we just saw,

Employment Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 10

Employment Law - Essay Example He complains of unfair elimination of his unused vacation. There was no proper written notice of termination of Tomas employment. The company provided a two-week termination payment in lieu of notice. Tomas promotion to a data entry manager made him work for about 55 hours in a week. This made him eligible for overtime because he worked for more than 44 hours in a week. This is because he was promoted a month after his overtime work that is within three months as stated in the Employment Standards Act of 2000. In Zsoldos v. MMMC Inc. Architects, 2005 CanLII, it the plaintiff signed an agreement with the defendant that was legally binding to both parties. Tomas needs compensation for the time off not taken, in addition to the hours he worked during public holidays. He should get time off for the holidays he worked in addition to the three weeks off as stated in the Employment Standards Act. It was not appropriate to eliminate the unused vacation because it could only be legally binding if there was a proper agreement signed in writing and not an oral agreement. This should be effective within seven days of employment termination. The withdrawal of the health benefits was inappropriate because Tomas was still an employee before the major clients seized to do business with Crowne Company. The company should provide the health benefits for the period stated in the contract agreement with the employee. In case of termination of the health benefits, there must be a written notice to the employee. Tomas termination of employment was inappropriate, as his employment with Crown Company lasted for more than three months. In addition, the employer did not give him a proper written notice informing him of the termination of his employment or a pay for the termination. The termination pay in lieu of notice was inappropriate. This is because in case of employment termination the pay in lieu of notice is effective within seven

Analysis of Hungarian Financial Crisis Case Study

Analysis of Hungarian Financial Crisis - Case Study Example The occurrence of the international financial crisis has forced the financial markets to reexamine their patience to tolerate uncertainty. Day by day as the financial disaster increased, this, in turn, resulted in the reduction of international liquidity and also an increase in uncertainty. On the other hand, the shareholders had started to distinguish among the rising markets and judged that the Hungarian possessions have become riskier. However, it can be concluded that the vulnerability of the Hungarian economy was mostly due to these uncertainties. In this situation, the Hungarian authorities were not very sure in what way they would handle these problems. They examined the market more minutely and had increased the deposit securities as per the European Union policy. But still this policy did not work and the Hungarian government was not able to save the public from this financial crisis and there was instability throughout the economy. So, in such a situation the Hungarian gove rnment had no other option than to take help from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union (Horvath, 1-2).  Ã‚   Moreover, auctions were held to sell the new government bonds, but this too did not work. Again the shares of the Hungarian bank had fallen to a great extent. The forint had started to fall; the rates of interest had started to increase. The security market of the Hungarian government had suffered huge loss and also there was the scarcity of liquidity in different financial institutions. The Hungarian authority already had huge debt under the communist administration. The GDP-debt ratio had decreased from 90% to 50% in the year 2001. Again due to incorrect policies adopted in the year 2002 the ratio had increased to about 15% and this resulted in a 65% rise in GDP. On the other hand, the debts of the Czech Republic and Slovakia were 30% and 50% respectively (Horvath, 1-3). Reasons for Hungarian Weakness In the year 2008, Hungary was the first member of the European Union who had wanted financial help from the International Monetary Fund. This was considered as a failure of the Hunga rian government. At this moment it was very difficult to state that in the near future which are the other countries who will have to face such a crisis and which country will be most affected.

Martin Johnson Heade Essay Example for Free

Martin Johnson Heade Essay Martin Johnson Heade (originally Heed), the eldest son in a large family of Joseph Howell Heed was born on 11th August, 1819 in Lumberville, a small rural location near Doylestown in Bucks country of Pennsylvania (Hollis Taggart Galleries, Para. 1). His father owned a farm and a lumber mill. His life is said to have been influenced by the two cousins, Thomas Hicks and Edward Hicks who probably taught him his first art lessons locally. His passion for art grew considerably in the 1840s, and it is around this time that he took a study tour to England and stayed in Rome Italy for two years. By the year 1843, he was residing in New York and later moved to Brooklyn, where he changed his name to Heade, and later on moved to Philadelphia (Hollis Taggart Galleries, Para. 2). In 1848, he took his second academic European tour to return later in 1850. The second trip did not leave him settled either, as he continued to travel while settling down briefly in the towns of St. Louis, New Haven and Providence. It was in this decade that he deeply studied and explored the effects of light on the environment, a subject that was equally dear to American Luminists Sanford Gifford, John Kensett C as well as Fitz Lane Hugh. Consequently he fully got into landscape painting (Hollis Taggart Galleries, Para. 2). In 1859, he rented a studio in the famous tenth street studio building in New York and became a full time painter (Lurie and Mappen, Pp. 355. ) It is in relation to this that he is remembered for his flora, fauna and landscape paintings that do not only have a rich effect of color and light but could also portray some poetic sentiments. Its while operating from the same studio that he met Fredric Edwin Church from the Hudson River school who was later to become his close friend and associate. This period is seen as the turning point in his life as it signaled the onset of his unique lifestyle and a lasting interest in landscape and paintings. In 1863, he interpreted the chaste Latin American coastal landscape in a unique manner and later toured Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the same year (Hollis Taggart Galleries Para 3). The goal of the tour was to illustrate a complete different version of South American Hummingbirds. He was so enthusiastic about the Hummingbirds that he hoped to prepare an outstanding and an elegant album about these creatures in Britain. Though he hoped to have this album published in Britain, it was never to happen. Hummingbirds however continued to be a dear subject to him as evidenced by the paintings that he did in the rest of life. He continued making trips to the Latin America notably in Nicaragua, Colombia, Jamaica and Panama. In the course of those visits, he studied the local flora and fauna, painting both large and small landscapes of hummingbirds and orchids, works that saw him get recognition at the gallery exhibition in New York and Boston. At the age of sixty four in 1883, Heade got married and moved to St Augustine in Florida. This is where he was to spend the rest of his life while he continued to exhibit his paintings in northern towns such as Boston and Springfield Massachusetts. He was almost forgotten in the New York City but was later rediscovered during the revival of the Hudson River painting school and has from then on been accorded the respect and major status that he commanded out of his outstanding work. In Florida, an oil tycoon and hotel magnate Henry Morris Flagger invited Heade to set up another studio, which was to be last studio, in a building behind Ponce De Leon, a hotel that was owed by Flagger in St Augustine. In his two decades stay at St Augustine prior to his death on September 4 1904, he continued to paint while fascinated by the flora and fauna located in Florida. His works were mainly Cherokee roses, orchids and magnolias (Hollis Taggart Galleries, Para. 4). The works could often depicted the same flower over and over again but in different blooming states thus bringing out the hidden beauty of the environment that is not obvious to many. During his stay in St Augustine Florida and prior to his death, Heade made more than one hundred and fifty pieces of work . Most of this work focused on the exuberant nature and landscape, flowers, sceneries and fruits of the American south , topics that were dear to him also. It is against this background that he is remembered, having not only taken a lot if interest in a rare subject but also having pursued it with vigor, passion and up to the old age. He did what he liked most and did it best. The outstanding feature of any artistic work done by Heade is their capture of their botanic and scientific accuracy. They note every line on the leaf, every mark on the facet, fruit or blossom. The figures below are example of the artistic work done by the 19th century artist and depict the mystery surrounding him and his interest in the natural world. Though the work was done more than a century ago, the beauty and elegance has surpassed the passage time. Fig. 1 Source: http://www. martin-johnson-heade. org/ Although little is documented in writing about Martin Johnson Heade as he left no identifiable body of writing, his contribution to the field of art and painting is immense. Such is evidenced by the Martin Johnson Heade, a function organized and premiering at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boson from the 29th day of September 1999 through the 17th of January 2000 which shed light on Martin Johnson Heade as one of the most original and all time artists in the history of mankind (Traditional Fine Art Online Inc, Para. 1). MFA owns an outstanding collection of work done by Heade including about 30 paintings, numerous drawings and other materials such as sketches and sketch books that he used. Although he was practically unknown during his own days, Heade is today also recognized in America as a great romantic painter and uniquely as a master landscape painter as far as floral still life is concerned. With a career that spanned over seventy years, a lot went to his name’s credit as noted during the function organized by MFA, having produced a varied body of work more than any other American artist of the 19th century. Martin Johnson Heade is sure to give new insights into the work of one of the most intriguing of American artists, whose paintings have a strange and almost surreal intensity. Heade was one of Americas most productive and inventive artists, and his work reflects a wide range of talent and creativity. The exemplary work captures such a variety of moods, from his atmospheric effects, the glory of light, the sumptuous warmth of his orchids and tropical scenes, and the inexplicable sensuality of so many of his works in every genre. I hope recognition of his genius grows as more and more people are introduced to these superb paintings (Traditional Fine Art Online Inc, Para. 6). During the popular Mesueum of Fine Arts event, Heade’s favourite hummingbirds painting was revisited. It was recounted that even if he never managed to secure the two hundred subscriptions needed to print his expensive book, which was never printed anyway, he produced four hummingbird chromolithographs for the book and could at the time be viewed in Boston as well as the sixteen paintings that were intended for the gems of Brazil from the Manoogian collection (Traditional Fine Art Online Inc, Para. 7). Earlier on in 1955, a historian and the then director of Macbeth gallery Robert Mclntyre had donated some work done by Heade to the Archives of American Art. Such included his sketch book, notebooks as well as letters and correspondeces between him and his close friend and associate Fredric Edwin Church between the year 1866 and 1899. In addition, they included a detailed notebook about hummingbirds that is handwritten as well as a circa dated in the range between 1853 to 1877. The scattred papers measure 0. 3 linear feet and date between 1853 and 1904. In the year 2007, the above were completely digitized to enhance archiving and are now avilable online as the Martin Johnson Heade Papers Online. They had first received a preliminary level of processing immediately after donation before being microfilmed in the same order that they were donated. The notebook and the sketchbook being the first ones to have been donated were therefore proffesionally conserved in the year 2004. Another area that is seen to have captured Heade’s passion is still lifes of southern flowers especially the magnolia blossoms laid on velevet. This was an advancement of an interest that he had since the 1860’s. In his earlier work in this genre, he had done flowers keenly arranged in an ormate flower vase and placed either on small or a large table, but covered with a mere cloth as opposed to velvet. At the time, he was the first and the only american artist who could create such an extensive body of work either in still lifes or in landscape and environment. In 2004, Heade was again recognized and honored with an outstanding stamp from the United States Postal Servive featuring a piece of his 1890 oil-on-canvas painting otherwise called Giant magnolias on a blue Velvet cloth. There were few artists who emulated head in the 20th century owing to the fact that he was unpopular at the time. However his work and art has been duplicated and forged by many especially in the 20th and 21st century. Such is attributed to the way his work has continued to turn up in garage sales as well as other unlikely places as opposed to works by other artists such as his friend Fredric Edward Church or ohn Kensett.. The popularity of his work can be attributed to the way he related with middle class buyers, his outstanding passion and effort put in as depicted in his various trips and his willigness to distribute his work all the country. Though unknown to him even at the end of his life, Martin johnson Heade was one of the most outstanding artist that ever existed on the face of earth. His passion in what was then an unpopular venture tells it all. His keen interpretation and approach towards the light and the environmet at large, his representation of the same on his paintings as well as his vigor and dedication to distribute his work, all leave no doubt that he did what he loved and in return loved what he did. His work does not only reveal what is unobvious to many but also unearths what is sincerely unknown and his spirit therefore continues to live moreso through his elegant work. Martin Johnson Heade is no doubt a legend whose life deserves recognition by and over generations while his work continues to demand respect over centuries. Works Cited: Hollis Taggart Galleries. Hollis Taggart Gallaries. 2007. 26 May 2010 http://www. hollistaggart. com/artists/biography/martin_johnson_heade/. Mappen, Marc and Maxine N Lurie. Encyclopedia of New Jersey. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Traditional Fine Art Online Inc. Meseum of Fine Arts Boston. 29 September 1999. www. mfa. org. 26 May 2010 http://www. tfaoi. com/newsm1/n1m630. htm.

The Impact Of Digital Technology Media Essay

The Impact Of Digital Technology Media Essay The use of digital devices such as computers, TV, mobile phones and video game has increased substantially over the past few years globally with every corner of the globe having some form of internet available. Technology has helped humanity get things done faster and there is no doubt or shortage of recognition of these increased benefits to humanity. The most visible effect of globalization is the reach of media of all types. A number of labels have been given to describe this impact which includes media society and the information society. Arguably information and communication mediated by network and broadcast systems of all types have become more important than the workplace that defined the Industrial Age (Holmes, 2007). How far both Digital media and social media have become integrated in the lives of most of the global population is shown here as at 31st March 2011, with the exception of some third world countries such as Liberia and Ethiopia with only a .5% Internet penetration rate and St Helena with only 900 users up from zero in 2000. Africa has the lowest percentage of Internet users globally with 11.5% penetration and makes up 5.7% of internet users globally. With a population of 1.03 billion, the total Internet users are 118.8 million including 30.6 million Facebook users. At the other end of the scale Asia has the largest percentage of internet user at 44% of all users globally from its population of 3.8 billion, a penetration of 24%. China is by far the highest population of users at 485 million and India at 100 million. However China has only 504,000 Facebook users of its 485 million populations connected to the internet while Indonesia has 38.8 million Facebook users of its 39.6 million internet users. (Minwatts Marketing Group). In total the world population estimate now at 6.93 billion with 2.11 billion Internet users and 710.7 million Facebook users as at 28th September 2011Â  (Minwatts Marketing Group, 2011). The importance of the Internet in todays society is of such magnitude that Sociologists are calling it a post-broadcast, second media age rising with it questions of democracy, free speech and the public sphere (Holmes, 2007). A current debate arising from the constantly fast evolving technologies exists between those who believe technologies serve human needs and those who believe technology shapes human evolution. These beliefs arise from a trail of evolving technologies of which will end when technologies can produce more technologies, making humans disposable. Both sides of the debate agree on one factor; historical turning points are marked by technological advances such as labor, trade, transport, medicine and weapons (Carr, 2010). Further debates on whether the increasing use of digital media are good or bad for new generations have risen alongside the many concerns by parents, psychologists, psychiatrists, government institutions and health related professionals of the length of time young people spend online using either social network sites, video and computer games and cellphones. This area of concern has risen to the level of seriousness that a near formalized diagnostic mental health classification labeled Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) globally by psychologists and psychiatrists is underway. These concerns however are further defined to excessive Internet use of which excessive is still to be further defined while the issue of IAD is so far being identified by mental health professionals when perceived as an interference with other areas of a persons life. A similar case is that of video and computer games where excessive use can be detrimental rather than beneficial to children, alongside the fact that unequivocal evidence shows violent video games are highly negative in their affects. Later in the chapter this research is presented. Much controversy surrounds the fact that Internet use provides many benefits for everyone, particularly the ability to access information of which was further extended when computers were supplied by governments to third world countries to help educate their people. While this appeared to be of some benefit educationally, on the other hand evidence for long term internet use on academic performance, even though scarce, appears more negative than positive, does not provide any strong evidence of benefits to people and in fact high internet use shows some impairment of performance over a long term. Moreover, the use of gaming is highly promoted by businesses and government agencies interested in economic benefits particularly as it is one of the highest income producers for the US economy currently. These organizations promote the benefits of the games, while many others believe it is harmful as seen in academic research. It is useful to note at this stage that TV even though not a focus of this chapter has not yet been displaced by the Internet and other new technologies and remains the highest used digital technology globally. 80% of families have cable or satellite TV and children watch at least three hours per day and four on the weekends. No matter how many new technologies emerge, TV keeps its powerful presence and has become a backdrop to family life and it can now be consumed on computers, mobiles and handheld devices (Gutnick, 2010). What are the effects of digital technology to us? Anecdotal reports have highlighted the sometimes dramatic effects both good and bad that digital media, the internet, social networking and online recreation appear to be having on the way our minds work, both physiologically and psychologically Carr, 2010, Greenfield, 2010; Wolfe, 2010; Price, 2011; Lanier, 2010) and there are a growing number of scientific studies that suggest changing patterns of brain function which have been attributed to the use of digital media. On the positive side these include improved complex reasoning and problem solving (Small et al., 2009). On the negative side they encompass difficulty in concentrating on books or long articles, becoming more easily distracted, impulsiveness, thinking that has a staccato quality and lack of concentration in general (OConaille and Frohlick, 1995). Then there are reports, particularly those that explore heavy web usage, of addiction to second life and on-line games (Chak and Leung, 2004). Support services, such as On-line Gamers Anonymous, have been set up to help people addicted to online activities. Meanwhile, experts from a range of disciplines, including neuroscience, education and technology, are often in stark disagreement about the long term benefits and costs of digital technologies to our mental functioning. Disagreements arise, not only between, but also within, disciplines. For instance, the neuroscientist Johan Lehrer dismisses concerns that digital technologies deplete our brains and regards loss of some mental functioning as cognitive trade-off (inside-the-brain.com/tag/johan-lehrer).He describes how dramatic decreases in working memory, self-control and visual attention result from simply walking down a city street and points out that while this activity may temporarily affect attention and memory, It is also an essential part of everyday life. Equally, he refutes claims that internet usage develops shallow thinking (Carr, 2010b). For Lehrer, the benefits of modern technology far outweigh the costs. By contrast, Professor Susan Greenfield, an eminent neuroscientist, former Director of the Royal Institution and author of several books on brain function, believes that repeated exposure to screen based technologies may re-wire the brain. In Greenfields view this issue is almost as important as climate change (Greenfield, 2010). She believes that excessive use of digital media may even threaten the quality of our existence if, for instance, social networking sites shortening attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred and lacking inpeople-skills (Greenfield, 2003). Yet other neuroscientists, such as the team at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Development in Los Angeles who conducted some of the first studies on the effect of the digital technologies on the brain, claim that internet usage can help improve some brain functions such as complex reasoning and decision making but disrupt others, such as people skills, including empathy (Small and Vorgan, 2008). Of course the behavioural changes caused by technologies are not restricted to our brains We have all have direct experiences of the ways in which technologies have changed our lives both at work and home as indeed have our research participants. Digital media have been credited with improving communications, efficiency, availability, flexibility, speed and so on. On the other hand, studies show senior managers working harder and having longer hours than in the past. They are often expected to be available at all times; they have less status, fewer perks and stress is common (Price, 2011). According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (October 2011), stress is now the main reason for long termabsence fromwork and it is rising.As Ian Price says in his excellent Digital technologies 335 book The Activity Illusion (2011), for a number of reasons, we risk becoming enslaved by a series of work innovations that, paradoxically, were introduced in an effort to ease life i n the office (2011, p. 26). We are all aware of our own or our friends changes in behaviour; the inability to turn off our mobiles, to go 24 h without checking e-mail, to ignore Facebook, resisting the urge to check e-mails in meetings, and so on. Being connected is the norm but it can be a two-edged sword. Some of our expectations of technology have been confounded. In the 1970s and 1980s, when computers heralded a new age of efficiency and the future was envisaged as paper-free, hypertext was heralded as liberation. Introducing hyperlinks into text displayed on screen would, it was claimed, facilitate critical thinking by enabling students to compare different viewpoints. It would free up the mind. It has not worked out like this. Carr (2011) cites a number of studies that contradict these expectations. Readers of hypertext often clicked haphazardly through pages rather than reading them carefully, they were unable to remember what they had or had not read. One study compared two groups of people in their ability to answer a series of questions; one group searched online, the other searched through paper documents. The latter group outperformed the former. Research continues to show that people who read linear text comprehend more, remember more and learn more than those who read text containing links. The effect of digital technology has been determined for several causes that technology will affect human being. It is Cultural Forms, Visual Arts, Literature, Music, and Interactive Multimedia. Cultural Forms Artists working in visual art, literature, and music have begun to incorporate digital technology into their creations. In each case, they have either appropriated existing technology or created new technology to suit their particular needs. The result has been new cultural forms that have called into question the nature of the fields within which they are created, as well as the nature of the artists themselves and the roles and responsibilities of their audience. Visual Art In the field of visual art, new forms have included both two- and threedimensional works produced on computer, collaborative online art, and World Wide Web or CD-ROM-based galleries. Many artists have chosen to use the computer as merely another tool in their creative toolbox; these artists often combine traditional and digital techniques in their work, such as scanning a traditionally created watercolor and then manipulating it digitally. Many of these works are retained digitally, but often they are printed to paper (or another support, such as canvas or vinyl) and displayed like traditional artwork. Other artists maintain a similar approach, but produce threedimensional instead of two-dimensional images, and these must necessarily remain digital. Three-dimensional images are technically interactive in that viewers can rotate the image to see it from different angles or zoom in and out on details, but viewers often cannot make any lasting changes to the image. Artists working in tw o- and three-dimensional digital art have found online collaboration to be a useful tool. An artist can upload the beginning of a piece to a common server (often the World Wide Web is used), and then other artists are able to access the piece and add to it (Lovejoy 223). While artistic collaboration has certainly existed since the beginning of art itself, online collaboration gives artists physically located vast distances from one another the ability to work together as if they were in the same studio. And in a sense, they are; its simply that the studio they are occupying is virtual, rather than physical. This has provided opportunities for collaboration that might never have occurred due to physical logistics. Both digital and traditional art can now be found in virtual galleries on the World Wide Web and in CD-ROM format. Literature In literature, the involvement of digital technology has produced the cultural forms of word processing and hypertext. Word processing is, quite literally, the processing of words, in that the user inputs his or her choice of letters in order to form words and sentences. Today, users have a great deal of control over the processing of their words; they can change fonts, type size, style, and even the layout of the page if they are so inclined. These changes can be quickly applied to the entire document and modified at will. Also, entire blocks of text can be rearranged to suit the authors purpose. Word processing has changed the way literature is written. Fragments of ideas can be quickly input as the author thinks of them, and then later expanded and moved around with a few mouse clicks. An author no longer needs to interrupt his or her train of thought in order to deal with the structure or mechanics of the writing; changes can always easily be made later. However, while digital te chnology does allow the author to compose his or her thoughts in a non-linear manner, the final document, whether printed to paper or retained in digital form, almost always assumes the linear format of traditional written or printed text. There is a definite beginning and end, and the document is designed to be read linearly. Hypertext, unlike word processing, is a completely non-linear format. It requires the reader to navigate through linked blocks of text, creating a unique path that may or may not be retraced during subsequent experiences with the work. Often the reader is also able to add his or her own links to the existing hypertext structure. Other readers can then incorporate those links into their own paths if they so choose. The World Wide Web, in itself an important piece of digital technology, is essentially a gigantic hypertext. In its initial incarnation, the Web was solely text-based. The traditional novels digital counterpart is hypertext fiction. Authors such as Stuart Moulthrop, creator of Victory Garden (1991), have used hypertext to produce fictional works that allow readers to choose their own path through the story, starting at any of a number of entrance points, and encountering a different story line each time they experience the work. Readers find themselves empowered in a way never before possible. In hypertext there is no primary axis, no clear road in or out, no coordinates that have priority over any other coordinates except as the reader determines. Thus lacking an authority or guide, the reader is thrust back onto his or her self (Gaggi 103). By empowering their readers in such a manner, these authors have expanded the possibilities for literary creation. Music Musicians have been working with digital technology since its inception, and have found the computer to be a useful tool for everything from generating random sounds to controlling a sophisticated digital symphony. In recent years, a new musical genre, called techno (or more broadly, electronica), has emerged. Essentially, techno music can be defined as music that consists of mostly digitally created and sampled sounds and beats, or grooves, arranged in a repetitive, rhythmic manner and usually played at clubs and parties for the purpose of dancing. While there are myriad subgenres in the broad category of techno (drum n bass, jungle, ambient, and trance, to name only a few), they all share one common element: the involvement of digital technology in their production (hence the name techno). Techno music is created by mixing together clips of sound, known as samples. These sound clips can be culled from existing sources, such as a music CD, or they can be created from scratch using s pecialized computer software. Also, mixing can be done in the studio or live at an event such as a rave. Artists who mix in the studio often burn their creations to CD for distribution purposes, but many are turning to the popular MP3 format, which allows music to be compressed into a small file with virtually no loss of quality. The artist can then distribute these files via the Internet and reach a much larger audience. Mixing sound samples together is not a new technique exclusive to digital technology; hip-hop artists have been manually mixing beats for years using only two turntables and a mixing board. In fact, many techno DJs today still rely exclusively on analog equipment. While vinyl, for the average person, has all but disappeared in deference to the CD, in the specialized world of the DJ one finds entire stores devoted exclusively to vinyl, and most techno artists (as well as a surprising number of artists from other musical genres) release their albums in both CD and vinyl format. Despite the ubiquity of analog equipment in DJ culture, most techno artists who produce their music in the studio do use digital technology at some point. Herein lies the essential difference between a techno Interactive Multimedia In addition to affecting the cultural fields of visual art, literature, and music, digital technology has also produced a hybrid cultural form known as digital multimedia. While multimedia did exist before the advent of digital technology, digital multimedia is quite different from its predecessor. One major difference is that most digital multimedia works exploit the interactive aspect of digital technology. Viewers are able to travel through virtual space and interact with the digital forms they encounter, thereby creating new forms and pathways that they and other viewers can experience. Interactive digital multimedia is most often encountered in CD-ROM format, since the bandwidth issues of the Internet in its current state make Web-based interactive multimedia impractical for all but the most high-end user. However, new technologies are currently being developed in both file compression (i.e. Flash for animations and MPEG for streaming video) and bandwidth delivery (i.e. cable mo dems and DSL) that promise to greatly improve the capabilities of the Internet and make Web-based interactive digital multimedia commonplace in the near future. It is within interactive digital multimedia that one finds the traditional roles of artist and audience most in question. One is no longer strictly a visual artist, writer, or musician, but rather a critical cultivator, first searching to comprehend the possible meanings that emerge from this accumulation of nanocircuitry and indeterminate layers of code, then trying to reconstitute those emergent phenomena in such a way that they can become part of an evolving cultural discourse (Shaw 165). Even the genre-neutral terms producer and creator are troublesome, since the aspect of interactivity in digital multimedia makes the audience as important an influence on the development of the work as the so-called creator. While these issues do occur in other digital cultural forms as well, the very nature of interactive digital multim edia provides the most fertile environment for the exploration of these issues by both artist and audience. In conclusion Digital technology and its increasing prevalence have impacted human life radically in the last few decades. From the advent of the digital society, spawned by the invention of the computer and ENIAC, one of the first digital computers in 1946, to the present day, digital technology and computing have worked their way into more areas of life, from communications to finance to social interaction. You can see the impact daily in homes, schools and offices. The impact of computer technology on our lives makes much sector change in word of work. Computer technology is such a big factor in everyones lives today. In my own life I cannot leave my house without my mobile phone I feel secure when I have my mobile phone with me so I can be contacted or if i was ever to be in trouble I could ring my family. Also social networking is another great form of communication. people who live in different countries and want or need to contact with friends or people from across the world, they can just set up a personal profile on a social networking site and work from there doing this safely and securely for them. Computer technology is also in schools for basic training for computers themselves as people can now do online courses to further their education, fitting this into their own schedules. Skype is also a great invention as I have family who live abroad so I and my family can always talk to them and see their faces its great as you wouldnt see them for months at a time.