Review on a post on LEGAL

It is a fact that the rate of piracy problem in Malaysia is quite high and we are still in the US Government’s Special 301 Watch List for the seventh year running.

From the post from My E-commerce blog, it is clear that our government did put some efforts in fighting against the piracy problem.
However, to fully eradicate this problem, I think we should find out the root causes of the piracy problem and tackle with these causes.


The FACTORS causing the above problem are as follows:

1. The low or middle income level of our citizens

• Most of the income levels of our citizens are still within the low or middle level, especially during this economic crisis period.

• Most of them are unable to buy the expensive genuine products.
  

• Instead, they may compare the cost and benefits of a product before they acquire it.
  

• Consumers who cannot afford the high-price originals will be willing to tolerate with the lower quality pirated products.

2. Social influence

• Peer pressure from the social group you involved in may affect you in buying counterfeit products.
  

• If the social groups you are involved in are less likely to buy the original products, your ethical concepts may be affected where buying pirated products is not a wrong act.
  

• And, if you are already very familiar with the environment of using pirated products, you may find that using an original product may be a weird behaviour to you.

3. “Sharing” principle of Asian region

• Due to this principle, the consumers may perceive that counterfeiting is just a soft crime and it is socially acceptable.
  

• Although knowing that buying pirated products may subject to fine or imprisonment, most of the consumers still do not take serious concern on this matter.

The two-way approach introduced by out government actually does help in tackling the second and third causes of the piracy.
Nonetheless, the first cause can only be solved by improving the overall life quality of our citizens and economy of our country.


It is very important to bear in mind that the factor that drives the growing production of pirated products is the increasing demand of the consumers.
Without these demands, there may be no pirated products at all.
Therefore, in order to solve the piracy problem, the authorities have to face the root causes mentioned above in advance.



Reference:

CONSUMER PURCHASE OF PIRATED VCD: DO NON-PRICE FACTORS MATTER?

Pros and Cons of E-learning

Electronic learning (E-learning) is a broad term of technology-enhanced learning(TEL) where technology, particularly computer technology is used to support the learning process. In other words, that is a specific mode to attend a class where students seldom attend face-to-face on campus as they study online.

In Malaysia, not all universities truly offer a 100% E-learning. E-leaning is still in its infancy stage in Malaysia and the study found that local students prefer paper lecture notes and tutorial questions. Other than that, inadequate technical training, insufficient equipment, and no incentives for innovation also contribute to the problem of E-learning in Malaysia Universities.

Advantages of E-learning

Convenience and flexible to students

Students are not bound to a specific time or days to attend class. They can adjust accordingly at their convenience. For instance, some students may need to work at day time so they can continue to learn at night time without sacrificing their academic.

Save costs

E-learning actually helps to eliminate wasted time and money. Imagine a student who lives very far away from campus, he needs to spent more on transportation and it is time consuming for him to go to campus everyday. If he can learn at home, this definitely will reduce the costs.

Environmental friendly

E-learning is a paperless activity. It can help saving the trees. With virtual notes instead of paper notes, E-learning is reducing environmental impact.

Disadvantages of E-Learning

Accessibility

Every student must be able to access to internet in order to accomplish E-learning. Besides, certain computer skills and knowledge are also needed, such as word processing and internet surfing. The student must also be very comfortable with computers.

Speed of internet

In Malaysia, the bandwidth is always an issue for internet users. Although there are many internet service providers in the market, rarely one of them can actually provide consistent high speed internet. If E-learning is to be conducted in universities, the speed of internet will be a big issue for all the students.

Motivation

E-learning may require students to complete assignments on their own. Thus, students need to be highly motivated and responsible as they have to finish the task in individual.

Effectiveness

Lecturers and tutors may not be available when students need their help. The effectiveness of E-learning is then questionable. Besides, students might cheat on the assignment or coursework since everything is done online and not physically.

References:

A comparative study on the effectiveness of E-learning at Malaysian University

Disadvantages of e-learning

E-learning in Malaysian Public Universities : UKM and UTM

Corporate Blogging

As the competition among corporations becomes more intense, not only do the companies need to survive, they also need to look for opportunities to be conspicuous.

Even though traditional media has been a solid medium that communicates the company messaging to the world for a long time, the trends of information consumption are evolving.

After some initial doubtfulness, companies are starting to realise the importance of blogging.

According to a research, 61 companies out of the Fortune 500 companies or 12.2% of the Fortune 500 are blogging as of 17 April 2009.


Corporate blog refers to blog that is published and used by organisation to attain its organisational goals.

The main advantage of blogs is that readers can reach and follow the posts and comments easily since the hosting is centralised and conversation threads are generally structured.

At present, all major browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 8 support RSS technology, which allows readers to read new posts easily without having to visit the blog. This is particularly useful for small-volume blogs.

Generally, there are six types of corporate blogs, which are sales blog, relationship blogs, branding blogs, knowledge blogs, collaboration blogs and culture blogs. These blogs can then be classified into either external or internal.


Internal blogs

Internal blogs are blogs that can be viewed by any employee and are usually accessed through the corporation’s Intranet. Internal blogs include knowledge blogs, collaboration blogs and culture blogs.

External blogs
External blogs refers to blogs that are made public where company employees, teams and spokespersons share their views. Sales blogs, relationship blogs and branding blogs fall under this category.

For more information about these six types of blogs, please visit http://www.corporateblogging.info/2004/08/six-types-of-business-blogs.asp.

Benefits of corporate blogging

I) Build rapport with customers

II) Provide two-way conversation

III) Increase website traffic from higher search engine rankings

IV) Position business as thought leader

V) Lead generation

For more information, please visit http://buzzmedia.com.my/blog/corporate-blogging-breakdown-what-is-it-and-why-does-my-organisation-need-it

Tips for corporate blogger

1) Know yourself

2) Know your audience

3) Engage your audience

4) Stay current

5) Cover your rear

For more details on tips for corporate blogger, please click here.

Followings are some of the more popular corporate blogs:

Google Blog

Adobe

Direct2Dell

GM Fast Lane

The number of corporate bloggers is increasing and it is expected that it will continue to increase in the future.

In order to compete with other corporations and keep up with the trends, corporations should start blogging if they have not done so.

In conclusion, corporate blog is a new, powerful marketing communication tool for every organisation.

Regardless of whether the organisation is small or large, small medium enterprises or corporations, for-profit or non profit organisations, as long as it is done correctly, corporate blogging can yield a huge Return on Blog.

References:

Corporate blog - Wikipedia

Do's and don'ts of corporate blogging

Top 15 corporate blogs

Review a local, transactional e-commerce site

Want to go for a movie on the coming weekend and you feel irritating to queue for the purchase of movie tickets? It is the time for you to purchase your movie tickets online!!

Golden Screen Cinema (GSC) offers the customer with the e-ticketing service named GSC E-Payment Ticketing on the GSC main website. All you need to do is sign up to become the member and you can enjoy the service.

In my opinion, there is a user friendly feature provided by the GSC to the new users which is the “e-payment ticketing tutorial”. This tutorial could be easily found in the website and it provides a clear step-by-step tutorial on how to purchase the movie tickets online.

Other than that, right after the step of selecting movie, there will be a pop up box to remind the consumers about the age restriction of the movie. For me, it is important as consumers might not be aware of the restriction and a pop up box brings the consumers' attention to the age restriction.





The service allows the consumers to pay via Maybank2u and credit card. Furthermore, there is “status page” at the end of the transaction which allows us to print out the hard copy as evidence of payment. The status page provides clear instruction about the collection of the ticket (such as remember the confirmation ID and the place to collect the ticket) which I think is very useful to avoid the consumers’ confusion during the collection of purchased ticket.


I am satisfied with the e-ticketing service provided by GSC as it provides a user friendly and easy environment for the consumer to purchase movie ticket online.



Reference:

Golden Screen Cinema Online