The Concept Of Cultural Heritage

The Concept Of Cultural Heritage To understand cultural heritage and interpretation, it is essential to understand the various definitions and theories in relation to the concept of cultural heritage. The term cultural heritage refers to the things, places and practices that define who we are as individuals, as communities, as nations or civilizations and as a species (Wedenoja, 2010). In other words, it is the cultural legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, preserved in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. It is a legacy which we often want to recognize and reserve because it strengthens our cultural identity of sense of who we are as people. However, what is considered cultural heritage by one generation may be rejected by the next generation, only to be revived by a succeeding generation. Cultural heritage is not limited to material manifestations. It also includes living expressions and the traditions that groups and communities around the world have inherited from their ancestors and transmitted to their descendants. Thus, cultural heritage can be grouped into broad categories: tangible and intangible. Tangible cultural heritage can refer to moveable objects and immoveable sites. These include archaeological sites, artifacts, buildings, historic sites, monuments, graves, and culturally significant landscapes like sacred places. Landscapes are considered heritage when they have natural features that may have cultural attributes including flora and fauna. Heritage sites like these often serve as an important component in a countrys tourist industry, attracting many visitors from abroad as well as locally. UNESCO  [1]  defines intangible cultural heritage as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the non-physical characteristics, practices, representations, expressions as well as knowledg e and skills that identify and define a group or civilization (UNESCO, 2010). These include language, oral histories, beliefs, practices, rituals, ceremonies, customs, traditions, music, dance, crafts, and other arts. Heritage that survives from the past is often unique and irreplaceable. This places the responsibility of preservation on the current generation. Safeguarding cultural heritage has become one of the priorities of international cooperation since 1972 when the General Conference of UNESCO adopted the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage. There are 878 World Heritage Sites as of 2008. They are located in 145 countries and 678 cultural, 174 natural, and 26 mixed sites (UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 2010). The preservation of living heritage has only become significant in 2003 when UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. (This is the short version > still have a lot of detail to add because the term cultural heritage is very detailed and has meant different things in the past decades. Unless the professor thinks this is enough.) Cultural Heritage and the Challenges of Tourism In recent years, key heritage sites have seen a remarkable increase poorly guided or unguided tourists. Tremendous pressure has been forced upon areas like Angkor Wat, Luang Prabang or Halong Bay the growing number of visitors and the general growth in Tourism. International agencies such as the World Tourism Organization have predicted that tourism numbers will continue to rise over the next 10 years, predominantly so for the continent of Asia. Such growths in visitor numbers worsens existing problems at World Heritage sites which include vandalism, lack of awareness of cultural and heritage significance of sites, congestion and destination and cultural commodification. As global tourism increasingly interface with heritage sites, the pressures of meeting challenges will be more pronounced. In addition to the negative effects of unguided mass tourism at heritage sites, a rise in niche cultural tourism also prompts the need for the training of cultural heritage specialist guides for World Heritage sites. The development of such niche groups of culturally-sensitive and learning-seeking tourists is constituted within the broader developments of what has been termed by tourism academics as special interest tourism and the diversification of the tourism market. However, the development of niche cultural tourism is hampered by the widespread lack of cultural heritage specialist guides in Asia-Pacific. In the APETIT meeting in 2002, the training of professional guides was highlighted by UNESCAP and UNESCO as key to improvements in the tourism system and industry. What is Digitization? We use the term digitization to refer to the process of converting physical resources or information into a digital format (Digitization, 2007). In other words, digitizing means simply capturing an analog signal in digital form. Photos taken with a digital camera, or data collected by an electronic measuring device are automatically converted into digital form. However, text and images that are in a tangible form can be digitized with a scanner (Ibid). When scanning texts or images, an optical character recognition program, also known as OCR, analyzes a text image for light and dark areas in order to identify each alphabetic letter or numeric digit, and converts each character into an ASCII code (Ibid). Audio and videos can also be digitized by a process in which an analog signal is changed, without changing its essential content, into a digital signal (Ibid). The process of sampling measures the amplitude, or signal strength, of an analog waveform at evenly spaced time markers (Ibid ). It also signifies the samples as numerical values for input as digital data (Digitization, 2007). Objects and sites on the other hand require a more complicated process. A 3D scanner is utilized to analyze an object or environment. The 3D scanner creates a point of cloud of geometric samples on the surface of the object or site and these points can then be used to digitally reconstruct the object or site (3D Scanner, 2010). Digitized resources can be easily shared through digital devices, equipment, and networks. Despite its many advantages, digital resources still need special care and preservation as they can become obsolete. Therefore, everything must be digitized at the highest quality and migrated to the latest storage and formats. Digitization of an object using a 3D Scanner (Scribe It, n.d.) Why Should We Digitize Cultural Heritage? Cultural Heritage should be digitized for the following reasons: Preservation of Tangible Cultural Heritage Digitization can help preserve tangible cultural heritage including objects and buildings. All objects and the valuable information they contain will be available without jeopardizing their integrity by handling or by exposure to the elements. For instance, the Stonehenge in Great Britain is using technological interpretation to conserve the heritage site. Brian Bath states in his publication The Use of New Technology in the Interpretation of Historic Landscapes (2006) that a massive number of visitors wanted to see every angle of the Stonehenge and if the same number of visitors came to the site constantly it would à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a threat exposed surface archaeology and to the protected lichens on the stone surfaces at ground level. Bath (2006) also added that it was hard interpreting the site without explaining the conservation process as well. People wanted to see everything but what they didnt understand was the effect they would have on the site. The solution for this matter was technology. Various forms of Medias like CDs with 3 models and web-based virtual museums were developed in response to assist tourists understand about the conservation and interpretation of the site. 3D/ Virtual Reconstruction of Stonehenge Broadened Access A lot of people cant travel to museums or actual sites whenever they want and even if they could, space constraints imposed on museums would only allow them to see a little percentage of available collections. Therefore, digitizing cultural heritage greatly increases public access. Furthermore, it also advances the work of scholars and researchers worldwide, and opens new opportunities to educators in every setting. Often, objects reside in multiple places even if they are related. Thus, digitizing entire collections allows museums to assimilate their resources, making it possible for scholars working externally to see at a glance their complexity and extent of holdings in a given area. Moreover, digitization also allows museums to share their resources more broadly by integrating collections that have been separated by location across many cultural heritage institutions and research centers. And lastly, digitized materials also help museums reach underserved audiences, as well as th ose not motivated to see museums as a source of information. For instance, twenty years ago, students had to travel to Washington, D.C. to research in the Library of Congress and it was an expensive matter. Now, high school students from around the world have instant access. In 2003, the Library of Congress reported that approximately 15 million people visited American Memory. That is more than the number of people who have worked in the librarys reading rooms over the past 200 years and 1,500 times the number who annually use the manuscript reading room (Cohen Rosenzweig, 2006). New Access Digitization allows access to historical resources that are inaccessible because of their fragility (Cohen Rosenzweig, 2006). As an example, the original 1791 plan for the city Washington is so deteriorated and brittle the Library of Congress does not allow researchers to examine it (Cohen Rosenzweig, 2006). But now anyone can view the digital copy on the librarys website. Not all Library of Congress documents are quite this fragile, but like many other sources, they cant be browsed easily in analog form. LEnfants Original City Plan of Washington 1791 LEnfants Revised City Plan of Washington 1792 Support Education Another benefit of digitizing cultural heritage is that it supports education. Digitization impacts learning in classrooms and everywhere learning takes place. Studies of cultural heritage can come alive with instant access to images, sound files and text extracts. People will be able to experience things not normally possible in a museum, e.g. exploring the inside of a space shuttle in 3D. Furthermore, educators working with cultural heritage can interact virtually with audiences and cultivate forums for exploring topics in more depth and from varying perspectives. Lifelong learners will be able to guide their own learning with help from museums digitized collections. Overall, digitization will give public access to a much greater percentage of museums immense resources, providing better tools with which to spark learning. Brian Bath (2006) stated that the Museum of London set-up a web-based virtual museum and 40 percent of the people who visited the site including students actually came to the museum. As you can see, some people who may have never had interest in going were appealed. Enhances Museums Competitiveness Digitization can enhance museums competitiveness by enhancing visitors experience. A study was carried out by the SITI Research Center of the Queen Margaret University College (Reino, S., Mitsche, N. Frew, A., 2007) in the UK by comparing live interpretation and traditional interpretation at 2 sites, which were Beamish and the Bowes. The result was that ICT improved competitiveness of heritage sites by enhancing learning, entertainment and visitors experience. Beamish which used technology for interpretation had an average of 4% better outcomes in each category. Ease of Access for Researchers In the past, researchers and scholars had to endure the thorough process of ordering up boxes of items in order to find what they were looking for. Sometimes researchers or scholars could not study the archival documents (e.g., glass plate and film negatives) without the prior conversions into readable or viewable media like prints. On the other hand digitization allows quick and easy browsing of large collections of material. Enrich Context Digitization will help enrich context of cultural heritage because everything relevant to an object including details, records, and other interpretative data can be shared. This will enable a richer interaction and enhance users understanding of an object or sites context and meaning. In addition, digitization will enable allows experts to compare artifacts and specimens against those of the digitized museum, substantially increasing information about these holdings at a greater rate remotely. Equally important, it allows people around the world to add additional impressions, associations, and stories to the permanent record. (Will add an example) Infinite Reach Digitization allows infinite reach. It helps people draw multi-media resources from science centers, programs, and museums. Drawn resources could be combined in a way that it could transport an audience back in time. An audience could potentially see how Thai people were living 300 years ago, or witness battles. On the other hand, digitization could also let people experience the present as scientists do. For instance, an audience could be accessing data from Bangkok and could be in the Arctic the next minute learning about ice. And last but not least, people could perhaps travel virtually through space, with a view so clear, making them feel as though they could touch the stars from their armchair. As aforementioned, with digital assets, people would truly have infinite reach. What is Heritage Interpretation? The Basic Principles of Heritage Interpretation The Evolution of Heritage Interpretation and New Media Museums and Their Functions What are Virtual Museums? Still missing but will be added: How can cultural heritage material be digitized? Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Digitizing audio video Cultural Heritage in Thailand Heritage Interpretation in Thailand Examples of Heritage Interpretation and New Media in Other Countries What is the possibility for Thailand? Is it worth it? Assesing Cost and Timelines. Problems with Digitizing Cultural Heritage (Has to be explained in more detail and more examples) Three major problems impede the use of digital technology from being a major tool in preserving cultural heritage. The first one is the enormous amount of financial resources needed for the scanning process, the second one is the quick obsolescence of hardware and software, and the third is the need for standardization of tools and interfaces. As a result, the work done in this area is mostly on a pilot basis, where researchers study the various aspects of certain subjects, build and experiment with modest projects, debate on standards and establish coordinating bodies. Forms of Digitization and Their Advantages and Disadvantages Virtual Museums 3d Technology The origins of heritage interpretation date back to the aftermath of the creation of the first natural parks at the end of the 19th century in the United States. However, it was not until 1957, with publication by Freeman Tildens Interpreting our Heritage that the foundation of the discipline were established. Although in the early days this interpretation was essentially

Child with Autism Essay

There are many books out there relative to the matter of Autism, but I have to say that â€Å"Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew† is a the must read for my parents and my colleagues at work, that’s why I chose it for this assignment. Summary This book is an expansion of a successful article that Ellen Notbohm published in 2005. She used the same title. Ellen is a mother of two special needs children, one with autism and the other one with ADHD; however this book is written from the perception of an individual with autism. This is not a long book. It has only ten chapters and is about 130 pages, including the preface and the introduction, called in this book as, â€Å"It begins†. In this part of the book, â€Å"It begins†, the author tries to convince families and caregivers who are dealing with autism, to see it not like a disease. Ellen wants people to help their children to live with it, not to teach them to suffer for something that the children can not even control or they may not even know about. After this introduction, we found that each chapter can be described like a handbook. Each of the ten chapters has just a few bits of information about the common problems that a child with autism presents. However, when you finish reading the book, you will find that this information all together is a complete and trustful story encyclopedia that can help parents, teachers and many other professionals who work with ASD individuals a young age. In the first chapter, the wish is that people may be able to understand that she or he is just a child that needs love, patience, and help. I’m â€Å"autistic†; I’m not a label, I’m just a child. Going beyond with this marvelous book we found how the sensory issues are the reason of many behavior problems. Behavior doesn’t appear from nowhere, an incomprehensible and unexpected behavior has a sensory cause. Ellen advises parents and caregivers to think and reconsider about their beliefs. She also made some suggestions that can help us to identify and work around the child’s sensory structure. Meltdowns, the well-known meltdowns. These are also addressed in this book. Ellen describes the four trigger clusters, sensory overload, physical/physiological, emotional, and poor examples from adults. She indicates the way to identify their causes as well. She makes us to stop thinking or saying that â€Å"she/he won’t† to analyze and identify what is causing the behavior. Visual learners, this is explained in chapter four. This chapter tells us how these children are concrete learners, and visual thinkers. She also illustrates how verbal communication doesn’t make any sense to these children, by given some examples that she calls common snags. She reminds us that we have to help these children by developing a functional way that she/he can use to express their needs, wants, feelings, fears, etc. If they don’t know how to communicate they will find the way to let us know, which can be expressed with any variety of behaviors. Some techniques are also provided in this book, to help these children to develop or improved social interaction and the formation of self esteem. Ellen, who is talking in this book as a child, reminds parents and caregivers that he/she is trying his/her best with his/her poor and limited social skills. Ellen describes her feels when her son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. She pictures her emotions and thoughts, and her continued fight with her hopelessness. Ellen finishes the book by saying that it didn’t take long to realize she wouldn’t change her son in any aspect even if she could. â€Å"I wouldn’t have him be anything other than exactly what he is†. Relationship between the book and CEC Standards of the course The relationship between this book â€Å"Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew† and the standards for professional educators, CEC, can begin with Standard One, that states how the â€Å"special educators use this knowledge as a ground upon which to construct their own personal understandings†. This book provides valuable information that can help teachers who work with ASD students to get a better idea of their world, and gather this information to build strategies or interventions that will help these children to develop or increase skills that will lead to improvement of their lives. Standard Nine, which addresses the engagement in professional and learning activities with families, colleagues, and activities that will lead to a professional growth, have a relationship with this book, because even though this book is more like a personal reflection from a mother of a child with autism, the book offers with details a full description of the primary problems that every child with autism has to face every day. The information provided in this book is helping educators to obtain knowledge and develop understanding of those incomprehensible and unexpected behaviors that many children with autism have. The last standard and the most important: Standard Ten which emphasizes â€Å"collaboration with families, other educators, related service providers, and personnel from community agencies in culturally responsive ways†, collaboration that can help to address the needs of the students. The collaboration can be practiced by sharing this book with parents, teachers, therapists, etc. As I mentioned in my introduction the information provided by the author can be considered as a handbook. Therefore by sharing this book with them, the special educator can be seen as a resource that is facilitating information to parents across settings and services. Professional practice with parents of ASD children My professional growth as a special educator has been impacted by this book enormously. Last school year when I was transferred to Redondo Elementary, although I have a background as a Special Educator, I didn’t know about autism at all. As a result I found myself desperately trying to find information that will help me to understand autism. One of my colleagues recommended this book and I purchased it immediately. I will say that Standard One is reflecting on my professional growth, because, when I read this book, I found the answer to many questions such as: Why is it that she/he claps? Why is it that she/he spins around? , etc. Knowledge that I apply to my teaching every day. Standard Nine reflects on my professional growth because, after reading this book, I am more â€Å"aware of how their own and others attitudes, behaviors, and ways of communicating can influence my practice†. Now I am able to understand more the culture of autism, and I’m also feeling more perceptive about my students’ needs and parents’ concerns. Standard Ten, which is always the most important for my â€Å"collaboration†. I like to extend an invitation to all my parents during my open house or family nights that we have at my school to read this book. I also like to extend an invitation to my parents to come and see me if they are having difficulties with their child at home, so we can work together to implement an intervention to address that particular problem. I would like to finish with this personal account book review/reflection sharing my favorite quotation of this book. â€Å"Patience. Patience. Patience. Work to view my autism as a different ability rather than disability†.

Computer programm essay Essay

Computers have brought about a revolution across all industries. They have changed the face of society. They are no longer specialized tools to be used by specially trained people. They are ubiquitous and used in almost every sphere of life. Computers are the best means for storage and management of data, they can serve as huge knowledge bases and can be harnessed for all sorts of financial transactions owing to their processing power and storage capacities. As computers are a daily utility, they have gained immense importance in day-to-day life. Their increasing utility has made computer education the need of the day. By computer education, we mean, gaining the know-how of the basic concepts related to a computer and gaining the basic knowledge of computer operation. Knowing about the basic components of a computer, the basic concepts behind the use of computers and the know-how of some of the elementary computer applications constitutes computer education. Learning about the computer basics followed by a practical experience of using a computer is the key to computer education. As computers are widely used today, acquiring computer education is the need of the day. Computers are not only storage devices and processing units, but also are excellent communication media. They are the means to access the Internet and get connected to the world. They are also an effective audio-visual media. Computers can be used to access a vast knowledge base and search for information archives over the Internet. Only computer education can facilitate the use of computers for purposes of communication and entertainment. Computer knowledge coupled with certain other job skills increases one’s chances of getting a job. Those with knowledge of computers are considered trainable for many kinds of jobs. As most of the jobs involve the use of computers, computer education is an eligibility criterion for almost all the modern-day jobs. Higher education involving network administration, hardware maintenance or software skills open doors for brighter job opportunities. Computer education helps one manage one’s own business assets and personal  finances. Computers serve as efficient means for management of information. Personal financial assets, medical records and important documents can be stored in an electronic format in a computer system. Today, banking transactions and payments of bills can be done over the Internet. Similarly, online shopping is becoming widely popular. To be in the race, it is very important to take computer education. The word processing applications of a computer serve as an effective means of documentation. The database management software that are a part of computer systems serve as the means of managing large amounts of data. The networking capabilities of a computer facilitate connecting to the Internet to reach out to the world. Gaming applications and media players are some of the popular computer software, which are popularly used across the world. Computers, which have such a wide variety of applications, are indeed ruling society. To keep up the pace in this fast life of today, computer education is extremely important. Computers are an integral part of life and so is computer education! Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/importance-of-computer-education.html

Value Creation by Windows - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2747 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/09/13 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? Soumenjit Mitra Value Creation Paper MBUS 627 Introduction The history of Microsoft is a textbook case of the power of broad vision. In the early days, Microsofts MS-DOS competed head to head with IBMs OS/2. Where IBM was myopically fixated on large customers as the only part of the market, Microsoft saw the market more broadly as every person in the world. This allowed them to take market share and become the monolithic corporation they are today by making their operating systems cheaply available to everyone. This was an early example of their value creation, since that time they have taken to a different method, but they still continue to create value for their customers. Value Creation Methods Microsoft uses a very simple method of designing products. This starts with reverse innovation, or starting with what the customer wants. They simply ask customers what is missing from previous operating systems and attempting to incorporate the ideas in new products. This is one part of the empathic design process which they employ. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Value Creation by Windows" essay for you Create order The second part is to make heavy use of prosumption. For example, the typical way a software company operates is to develop an â€Å"alpha† version of the software, work it over in house until it is mostly stable, then release to select members of the market a â€Å"beta† version for further testing. This allows the remaining bugs to be worked out of the program so that the final version requires little if any patching. When Microsoft released Windows ME, they took a different approach. They released for sale what most companies would have considered the alpha version of Windows ME, which resulted in numerous technical difficulties and complaints, which they took and worked the fixes into Windows XP, which was released in its beta version. In this way, Microsoft saved the cost of alpha and beta testing, beat the competition to market, and had the general public pay for the privilege of finding all the bugs in the program (Tynan). They used the same technique with Windows Vista. This process is also closely related to their use of mass collaboration. This combines with the experience of their employees the needs of the consumer. Microsoft also has various applications which are modifiable with their . net programming language, which allows end users to create their own applications. They also partner with other companies such as IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and others to have Microsoft operating systems come standard in many product bundles. In this way, the development team for their products extends far beyond the limits of Microsoft. It is this very process which has allowed them to be in more contact with the market than the competition. When the personal computer market was just beginning to grow, Digital Research was far larger than Microsoft in both number of employees and market share. Yet while that company was focusing on developing the best operating systems and assuming everyone would be able to see how good they were, Microsoft was agreeing to work with IBM to produce an operating system which would interface with just about every piece of hardware IBM could build. This was then offered to a new market, the personal computer market, a market comprised of customers who knew little about computers and just wanted them to work without effort. Microsofts product provided that flexibility to accommodate virtually everything an average customer could want to do with a computer. This attention to what the market desired, combined with a dash of anti-competitive behavior, allowed Microsoft to bring a product to market which better matched the needs of most consumers and thus dominate the personal computer industry early on. Since then, their attention to the customer needs has allowed them to continue to provide the level of value seen early on. The Value of Microsofts Operating Systems: Benefits Value is benefit minus cost. As previously stated, the main benefit of Microsofts operating systems is that they allow average users to unlock as much potential of the computer as they are likely to want. This fits with the benefits of using Microsofts products falling into two categories, performance and perception. The performance aspect of the operating system refers to what it allows the end user to actually accomplish. The perception aspect refers to what it makes the market believe it allows the end user to accomplish as well as how the customers view Microsoft in relation to the rest of the market. The Value of Microsofts Operating Systems: Performance To begin with, the performance is acceptable. For most users who want to browse the Internet, write papers, use spreadsheets, track expenses, play games, etc, Microsofts operating systems allow them to take a computer off the shelf turn it on and have it work. This is especially useful for organizations, such as universities, who require many computers and want them all the same and easily managed. In terms of physical efficiency, that will be discussed in depth in the cost section, but for now it is sufficient to say the Microsoft operating systems unlock a moderate amount of the true potential of a computer. That said, because Microsoft products account for roughly 80% of the operating system market, the network effects allow the users to be fairly confident that their computers will all interact with each other without too much difficulty and they can easily find people who can support the computers. Thus for the ordinary person the Microsoft product allows them to realize a sufficient level of performance to keep them happy. Perception The perception of Microsoft products in the market place is vastly different than its actual performance. Windows is seen by many as the operating system of the common person. This came about in large part because Microsoft set out with the intention of making an operating system which could be all things for all people, a â€Å"plug it in and let it go† operating system. As a consequence, the average user sees Windows as what â€Å"everybody uses,† because with an 80% market share most everyone does use it. This in essence builds a brand community which encompasses the vast majority of the market and allows the users to feel connected to everyone else who also uses Windows. There is also the perception that any program worth using must work on Windows, and thus many programs are written for the operating system. Compared to the other operating systems users, Windows users feel they are saner than the alternatives. Mac users are seen as being â€Å"snobs,† or at least outsiders while Linux users are seen as being â€Å"geeks† and â€Å"hackers† while those operating systems are seen as being too expensive or too difficult to use. Compared to both of these groups, Windows users then feel like â€Å"regular,† â€Å"normal† people by being in the mainstream. Costs The life cycle cost of running Microsoft products is more complicated than most people realize. To begin with, there is the price of the operating system, which varies based on which version but is somewhere between $119 and $300. This price is usually bundled in with new computers on which Windows comes preinstalled rather than a separate line item. The second part of the price is in the form of the Office Suite usually required to make a computer usable for most people. This costs $150, which brings the total dollar price of Microsofts operating system to somewhere between $269 and $450 for the single computer customer. Microsoft often offers discounts to larger customers and regularly donates their product to schools and other not-for-profit organizations. The second cost, the acquiring cost, is the computer system requirements to run Microsofts products, meaning the minimum physical specifications a computer must have to be able to run the operating system. In the case of Microsofts latest operating system, Windows 7, this means a 1 gigahertz processor, 1 gigabyte of random access memory, 16 gigabytes of hard drive space, and a DirectX 9 graphics device (Windows System Requirements). While none of this â€Å"technical speak† may seem like an issue, or even make sense to the common person, it is fairly simple to put this in monetary terms. The processor and memory will cost approximately $20 each, an 80 GB hard drive is $50, the video card will cost $12 and the motherboard to complete the computer will cost an additional $20 for a total hardware cost of $122. This makes a grand total for the computer of $572† . Of course this price is assuming the customer bought the parts separately; many manufacturers have price discounts with Microsoft and parts suppliers thereby reducing the price. These numbers are just to provide a more concrete example of how system resources requirements cost the customer extra and to allow comparison to other competitors later. The ownership cost of Microsoft’s operating system is more difficult to calculate. This refers to the amount of time spent fixing bugs or calling technical support because of problems. One part of that is the price they place on customer support, which in 2007 was $59 per incident after the first 90 days of ownership (Lai). The rest of this cost is difficult to quantify because people who have down time but fix the problem themselves do not report this. For the most part, that accounts for all the costs of using Microsoft operating systems. The final piece of the life cycle cost, disposal costs, varies from place to place, but for the most part being rid of old computers is not costly. This allows the estimation of the products value. The Value of Microsoft Operating Systems Due to the perception value of Windows, total value is difficult to quantify. For the most part, the functionality does cover its cost for most users because of the one-size-fits-all ability. This creates value, and when that value is combined with the perceptions customers hold, Windows does create value for the customer. How much value is impossible to put a number to, but there is value being created. The question however is not whether there is value created, but whether there is economic value created. The Economic Value of Microsoft Operating Systems To calculate the economic value of Microsofts operating systems, the value from above is subtracted from the value of the competition. This is difficult to do because there are no actual numbers, and market perception makes a large difference. However, it is fairly easy to compare performance and price. MacBooks provide the most serious competition to Microsoft. They come as a bundle of software and hardware for a cost of $999. In terms of performance, they are equivalent to Microsofts offerings for many users, though Mac owners might disagree with that statement. For certain applications, such as video processing, the Mac operating system is far superior to Windows, but for most users the difference is hardly noticeable. Thus when compared to Mac, and for the general market, Microsofts offering creates a value of approximately $427 because the performance value is the same but the cost is lower. Obviously, these two products are targeted towards slightly different users, but for the average user needing an average computer, this would be the value of Microsoft over Mac. Comparing Microsoft to its other competitor is much more challenging and less kind to Microsoft. Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux, which is an open-source operating system. It is a free download, so there is no cost associated with price. Further, its system requirements are a 300 megahertz processor, 64 megabytes of random access memory, 4 gigabytes of hard drive space, and a video card (Ubuntu System Requirements). Components with these specifications are no longer in production and can often be obtained by collecting computers which are being discarded by Windows users as obsolete. Thus the cost of obtaining the components is also virtually free. If a person feels like paying for the computer, Dell sells Linux computers which are the same as the Windows computers only without the operating system cost and likely to last almost twice as long. Linux is also virtually virus free, meaning the cost of virus protection associated with Windows is absent in Linux, and because the computer lasts longer the total life cycle cost is spread out over more years. Linux, like Mac, provides approximately the same level of performance as Windows for the average user. For the advanced user, it unlocks far more potential than Windows can, as evidenced by its considerably lower system requirements. This aspect is difficult to quantify, but for most people, Linux can satisfy all their requirements, though the perception in the market clearly does not agree. Where Linux falls short of Windows, aside from the perception aspect, is its lack of network effects. Finding people who know how to install Linux on a large scale is difficult, though Linux is much better at forming networks of computers. The only actually quantifiable cost to running Linux which is greater than the comparative cost of running Windows is in down time. If there is a problem with Linux, it can be more time consuming to fix because assistance is more difficult to find and the end user often must fix the problem, though often the advice on how to fix it is also free. Thus from a purely technical aspect, Microsofts offering has a negative value. Against this competitor, perception is the source of the value creation. Because the market sees Linux users as â€Å"geeks† and Linux as far too difficult to use, Microsoft holds itself out as a better choice. This perception is slowly being overcome, however, by distributions of Linux such as Ubuntu by Canonical and SuSE by Novell both being developed with the goal of being as user friendly and â€Å"geekless† as Windows. This helps explain why Linux is slowly eroding Microsofts market share; but for now, the perception aspect and network effects of Windows still allow Microsoft to create value over Linux. How to Improve the Situation The â€Å"everything for everyone† design has allowed Microsoft to take a vast majority of the market share, but at the same time it has created numerous technical difficulties, many of which result in what is colloquially known as the â€Å"blue screen of death. † One way for Microsoft to increase its value creation is to reduce the number of instabilities and crashes thereby reducing downtime and technical support calls. This would mean reducing their use of prosumption because putting products into the market when they have so many defects, while cheaper for the company, does not create as much value for the customer. If they released their operating systems at the level of Windows XP or Windows 7 instead of at the Windows ME or Vista level, that would improve their value offering to the market. Secondly, reduce the price of the operating system. Once the research and development is done, the marginal cost of producing the next unit is less than $5 (CD costs) each yet they sell for almost $300. This indicates there may be room to decrease the price and still make a profit, which would also increase the value to the market. They are in the same place IBM was with OS/2. IBM held such a high price for the operating system that even though it was technically superior to MS-DOS, it lost because the market moved towards the cheaper alternative. With competitors like Linux out there, Microsoft should strongly consider reducing prices to create more customer value or it risks losing customers to the competition as the perception of the market shifts. Conclusion Microsofts value creation and competitive advantage is largely based on market perception. As they enter the next decade where more people will be more technically savvy, this advantage could well be eroded. To be ready for this shift, they should begin searching for ways to deliver more concrete value to the customer so that as they lose their perception advantage it can be replaced by a value advantage. Failure to do so could easily lead to being defeated much like Microsoft beat out IBM. Works Cited CD costs, 10,000 CDs manufactured in 15-20 days, cost $6,876, or $0. 69 each. https://www. nationwidedisc. com/index. php? option=com_content;task=view;id=74;Itemid=117 Lai, Eric, â€Å"Microsoft Raises Consumer Vista Tech Support Costs,† PCWorld. om https://www. pcworld. com/article/128788/microsoft_raises_consumer_vista_tech_support_costs. html Tynan, Dan, â€Å"The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time,† PCWorld. com https://www. pcworld. com/article/125772-2/the_25_worst_tech_products_of_all_time. html#millennium Ubuntu System Requirements, https://help. ubuntu. com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements Windows System Requirements, https://windows. microsoft. com/systemr equirements [ 1 ]. † Prices taken from products. google. com