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Posts Tagged ‘Concept’

We are all familiar with the power of Flex development. Flex developers can create interactive applications in a matter of minutes using Flex, one of the keys to create best RIAs or Rich Internet Applications. This is what makes Flex so powerful and a huge improvement over Flash. One of the core development fields where Flex is being used is developing gaming applications providing thrilling experiences to the gamers. Even the hardcore gamers swear by the gaming applications developed on the Flex platform.

Flash games have been doing the rounds of the Internet for many years now. In the recent years, Flex has overtaken Flash as the preferred platform of online game development. Some of the popular Flex games include Astro Chaser, Filler, Participate Playground, and Carnival Showdown among others. Apart from this, Flex development is also used for custom game development. No wonder Flex developers are keeping themselves busy these days.

Flex development by concept is split into two parts, the GUI and the ActionScript code. The GUI is created in an MXML file. This is nothing but an XML file that contains user interface elements nested in tags very similar to HTML. At times the MXML file can contain ActionScript code inside an mx:Script tag, but the main focus of the MXML file is to define the user interface. The top level tag of an MXML file is the mx:Application tag.

For Flex development, you will require Flex SDK (software development kit), Text Editor IDE (integrated development environment) and the Flash debug player. Flex developers use these tools in a very methodical way. Flex SDK will help you combine Flash source code into SWF file format. With the help of text editor, you will be able to edit the code when required. Flash debug player will let you test your work as you progress.

Reasons for Popularity of Flex Development:

Flex development is cross platform compatible. The games developed can flawlessly be played on different platforms like Mac, Linux, Windows, etc. There are very few competitors to these features of Flex games.
Flex games are very easy to disperse and distribute. It is as easy as uploading a .swf/Flash file on the Internet. These small interactive games act can spread virally over the Internet and serve as a great marketing tool for businesses.
Games, which are built using Flex needs no extra plug in installation except Flash Player which in most cases is automatically integrated into the web browsers or can be easily done into the browsers.
The tools, which are required for Flex development, are available for free download and you don’t have to incur additional expense if you want to use Flex or join the club of Flex developers.
There are a number of offshore development centers which use Flex in custom development of gaming applications. You can easily outsource Flex development to such centers and get competitive pricing.

If one is a retailer or wholesaler of goods and has aspirations and plans to make it big, then it is imperative for him or her to get done an oscommerce development for himself/herself. The first reaction, to this recommendation, of many shop owners might be that of ignorance. They are not to be blamed as work and management of their store has got them consumed so much that they have not had the opportunity to look beyond. However, oscommerce development is an important activity which could help the store or the showroom owner to take his/her business to the next level. To simplify things, the medium of internet has become an important destination for people to place themselves, if they have any aspirations to grow big. One way through which one could launch oneself online is this oscommerce development, which uses oscommerce ecommerce solution, an open source.

Talking about oscommerce development, the best way to describe the concept is by understanding one’s own store.

One has one’s store in some place(s) and various products are stocked there. The people coming to the store can browse through the product, its price, packing, etc. and then decide on whether s/he wants to buy the product or not. Similarly, the online medium provides one with the option of having a virtual store. Oscommerce development is one way in which one could develop such virtual store. This means that the locality of one’s store is the World Wide Web, making it accessible for people all across the world. Although the products can’t be stocked there, the technological advancement in photography devices could make the picture of the product, on the virtual store, look almost real. One could even upload a three dimensional image in one’s virtual store established through oscommerce development.

Where most people get skeptical while considering the option of establishing their online store through oscommerce development is the popularity of such medium among shoppers. There is a group of people, even today, which believes that doubts over payment security and absence of option of touching and feeling the product works as an impediment to online shopping. However, if one looks at the whopping growth that this medium has seen over time, all doubts over the viability of getting done oscommerce development would be wiped off. People have been flocking the online stores and making purchases of not only small amounts but even bigger ones. Also, the option of being able to browse through the products in the comforts of one’s home has been attracting many visitors to such online stores. Therefore, one needs to get a virtual store through oscommerce development in today’s world to stay afloat and competetive.

Preface

The purpose of this article is to present an integrated model of leadership. I call this Holistic Leadership, one founded upon the premise that each of us must strive throughout our lifetime to become a centered individual who is able to effectively use the four principal components of leadership. Of particular significance is to understand the importance of the whole and the inter-relationships among the components and their elements.

My approach is not to focus on leadership equals position in an organization (i.e., management), but rather to talk about it as being resident in each and every one of us. It’s important that any discussion on leadership be integrated with individual, team and organizational learning. Although an effective leader must be able to adjust her style to the circumstances and people she leads, this must also be done in the larger context of a learning culture.

So what is a learning culture? To paraphrase Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), a learning culture exists when people collaborate to create their own future.

From my perspective, this means that leadership must be shared if this is to indeed happen, and that people must work continually towards becoming holistic leaders.

Why All the Fuss?

The roles that people (managers and staff) play in today’s organizations have become much more dynamic. They face greater complexity in their work environments as a result of the evolving and more sophisticated needs of clients; growing interdependency in the global economy; technological change; changing organizational structures and work processes; an aging population, and fiscal pressures. For those in managerial positions, these individuals must not only be able to respond to the needs, values and aspirations of their staff, they must also anticipate changes in the future.

To help their organizations thrive in a rapidly changing economy and society, everyone must practice some form of leadership.

While working in a collaborative manner with co-workers is key to helping their organizations succeed in the 21st Century, enhancing one’s personal leadership is critical, and this requires self-discovery and self-awareness.

In his book Principle Centered Leadership, Stephen Covey stresses the importance of people achieving balance and greater fulfillment in their lives by following correct principles. Doing so gives people a base for all of their daily decisions. From a leadership perspective, this is especially important because it instills a sense of stewardship, an essential element in effective leadership. As Covey states:

When people align their personal values with correct principles, they are liberated from old perceptions. One of the characteristics of authentic leaders is their humility, evident in their ability to take off their glasses and examine the lens objectively, analyzing how well their values, perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors align with “true north” principles.

The need has never been greater for leaders – at all levels – who are capable of functioning effectively in organizations in which diversity and interdependence have become two major yet opposing forces. This requires new behaviors for leaders if they are to succeed in this new and complex environment. Let’s now look at a model I’ve called The Holistic Leader: The Four Components & Their Principal Elements.

The Holistic Leadership Model

Note: Please visit my website (see the resource box at the end of this article) to view a diagram of the model. Click the button ‘Holistic Leadership’

At the core is the Centred Individual, representing the person who has attained a high level of comfort and competency with the four primary leadership components. One may prefer to see the centred individual as having achieved balance. That’s fine, as long as it’s understood that balance does not mean using the four components in equal measures. Instead, the centred individual is able to seamlessly alter her leadership behaviour to meet the needs of her followers and co-workers under a given set of circumstances.

Because leadership does not exist unless there are followers, it stands to reason that at the core of the issues that demand the attention of leaders is people. This model was created with people as the cornerstone. Moreover, it respects the need for formal, managerial leadership and informal, shared leadership. Both are needed to support one another in an age of uncertainty, paradox, and speed.

Teaching

Much has been written on the need for leaders to be coaches and mentors. This is indeed essential to their effectiveness. But Teaching, as a key leadership component, is broader, encompassing the learning organization concept. Some writers have used the expression The Teaching Organization in place of the learning organization. Teaching becomes the responsibility of everyone in the organization. It begins from the inside. This is the quest for personal mastery: to continually strive to improve oneself, and in turn to share with others. In essence, we become stewards for teaching, because it is seen in the organization as highly valued and necessary to its long-term success.

To be a “teacher” means being open, both to self-discovery and to the views and feedback from others. Reflection and inquiry are critical if this is to occur, for without them we are not able to slow ourselves sufficiently to explore new meanings and possibilities. Teaching is fundamental to effective formal and informal leadership.

Directing

This component is critical to those in management, especially at the senior level. We read in the management literature how managers must posses certain key elements. They need to be visionary and strategic, yet also have a burning sense of urgency to move forward. Furthermore, they must be results-oriented, and to achieve this means that they must be capable of mobilizing people.

That these five elements are essential for effective formal leadership is not in dispute. But what about those people in middle managerial positions, not to mention staff? Little has been written on the need for people at the middle and lower levels in organizations to develop their skills for these five elements. However, they are critical skills to acquire if we wish to see a change in the culture of leadership in organizations.

Peter Senge explains that there are three main types of leaders in organizations. Senior managers are one category. A great deal has been written on this group. The second category of leaders is front-line managers, who Senge says are the most critical in an organization because they connect daily with staff. And the third is what he calls Network Leaders, or what others call Thought Leaders.

All three categories of leaders must interact because they each possess certain strengths. Front-line managers, unfortunately, have not been paid sufficient attention in organizations, with respect to improving their leadership abilities. In terms of the Holistic Leadership model, front-line managers need to ensure that they develop the directing component, because they are the ones who are best positioned to mobilize their staff. But this means that they need to be visionary and strategic, as well as results-oriented.

Network leaders are the seed planters, sowing ideas in their organizations and bringing people together. Their interaction with front-line managers is vital, in terms of reciprocal sharing of knowledge and ideas. And they play a key role in influencing senior management. Network leaders must also develop the elements contained in the directing component if they wish to increase their effectiveness.

Consequently, it’s important that we rethink our assumptions on the directing component of leadership. These assumptions are oriented around power and authority and where they are housed in organizations. If we really wish to see our organizations evolve to embrace collaborative learning and shared leadership, then we need to shed some of our traditional beliefs on leadership.

Participating

This brings us to the participatory aspect of leadership. It doesn’t matter what expression is used: shared leadership, participatory leadership, post-heroic leadership, roving leadership, etc. The point is that this component of leadership is critical to helping organizations create learning cultures that are based on power-sharing, inclusion, enrollment, alignment, collaboration, and commitment.

Much has been written on participatory leadership. In both the private and public sectors, it is espoused by senior management as being the new way of working together. However, what is said publicly is often not practiced. This applies not just to management but staff as well. Modeling the desired behaviours that accompany this form of leadership is fundamental to its eventual success. Network leaders, for example, must practice the elements contained in this leadership. Staff, too, need to learn how to collaborate and how to find common ground when conflict arises.

Some time ago, I read an article that talked about the tacit collusion in which employees frequently engage to protect their functional boundaries. Specifically, people follow unspoken norms with respect to staying out of one another’s jobs. When these norms are not followed, conflict typically emerges. The consequence is the “cementing” of behaviours and practices in organizations. When a major change initiative is introduced, senior management becomes frustrated by the rigid silos that have been erected among functional groups, and which in turn contribute to resistance to the change effort.

Participating is an extremely important component of holistic leadership because it provides the conduit to unleashing the potential of people. Again, this is important to those in senior and front-line managerial positions, and also to those who seek to play informal leadership roles.

Nurturing

This component of holistic leadership is one that is only beginning to receive attention. It is what some call the “soft” aspect of leadership. Because it is strongly oriented around relationships and the human dimension, it is not easily quantifiable. Moreover, nurturing is an area that has not traditionally been part of the heroic leadership mindset, and which has been dominated by males.

The ability to show empathy is vital to enhancing our leadership. To be empathetic means to be able to put oneself in another’s shoes, or frame of reference. Stephen Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, speaks of the habit of Seek first to understand, then be understood. This is a difficult habit to learn because it requires us to listen carefully to the other person and to really understand their point of view, all the while refraining from speaking ourselves.

Improving our ability to empathize will in turn enhance our communication skills. Creating meaningful conversations, or dialogues, is essential if organizations are to enhance their collective ability to learn. But the challenge to this is the diversity that is growing in organizations. The holistic leader is able to see the value in diverse needs, wants, beliefs, expectations, personalities, backgrounds, gender, colour, age, etc. Being able to see from a systems perspective the benefits that diversity brings to an organization, and in turn influencing it in a forward-thinking way, is a strong leadership asset.

This leads to the creation of bonds within the organization. The holistic leader has contributed to creating a web of relationships, despite the challenge of addressing diversity in an organization that faces unrelenting change. These bonds, in turn, support collaborative learning and the creation of a learning culture.

The holistic leader understands and pays attention to the need for developing the triangle of spirit, mind, and body. Without daily practice of these three equally important parts, it is difficult to achieve a high state of personal wellness. As with personal mastery, personal wellness starts from within. But the holistic leader also strives to help her co-workers (and staff) increase their awareness of this important element of nurturing leadership. For example, the network leader sows “wellness seeds” in the organization as a way to assist the organization create a healthier workplace: spiritually, intellectually, and physically.

Wrapup

I have attempted in this article to present an integrated model of leadership that is simple in design yet complex in practice. The four components of the holistic leader model are not discrete but rather interdependent. When looking at one part of the model it quickly becomes apparent of the link to other parts. And this is how we need to approach leadership: by understanding the web of relationships among the many elements. If we take the approach that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, then we will benefit from the synergies that emerge when we work towards becoming holistic leaders.

Throughout the industry nowadays it is necessary to be more resourceful, minimal in cost, but maximized in success, and proven that the focus of business is always on the client, and customer’s demand therefore a managerial business of Virtual Assistant or VA is relatively a new concept which can rest assured that the business will continuously provide the client’s demands and expectations.

Virtual assistance is an attractive way to lessen the cost, a budget friendly solution, and suitable for companies who wants low investment or much smaller budget but seeking for long term solutions to the business today.

Virtual Assistant known as VA are working independently on the office or even on the own home with own equipment, software and network connectivity, those who are competitive and qualified technical and administrative employees, researchers, writers in efficient manner.

And having hired virtual assistants is a privilege because of a minimal training yet accessible when the client needs the service.

They are able to handle all the virtual assistance services and administrative tasks. With hired virtual assistant you can have a lesser cost, because you only have to pay what has been agreed based on the job order given to him or her. Whether per hour or per project, you are assured to only pay what has been serviced to you. With an in-house admin staff, you have to pay during regular working hours of productivity. You even have to pay overtime pay which has a certain multiplier in the cost depending on the government mandates.

Taxes and benefits are also compulsory.

Virtual assistance services pertain on providing a quality service with less traditional office supports such as office space, employee recruitment cost and equipment. This administrative profession offers word processing, spreadsheet design, book marking, article presentation as well as internet research, blog submissions, forums, data entry, data verification, web submissions, PDF conversion, web designing and other clerical and specialized concern in the business, This service means an extension of your office and the quality of virtual assistance service provided by the specialists is the edge over the other field. This saves the cost of employing a number of full timers for different tasks.

Virtual assistant should posses the qualities of being analytical thinker, organized, with flair of creativity and knows how to multi task. They endow the service with the use of internet, fax machine and telephone and it is not necessary to communicate with the client face to face.

As the virtual assistance emerges which have been conducive in the industry, Infinity Web solutions is aware of the demands that running a business can have the personal, emotional, and secular life and they offer solutions that can make running a profitable business fit into your life, and understand your business to get your job done.

Virtual Assistance has become a very popular and efficient way to keep the business operating smoothly for the small or home-based business sector as well as a feasible option for corporations, business, industry wanting to down-size their operations, to lower their operating costs but wishing to maximize the success.

Open Source Business Model

Introduction

The open source business model is a business development methodology that offers a practical and open access to the source of the product. It is also referred an open source to different possible approaches while on the other hand is also considered as a critical strategic in the business operations.

Before the open business source was adopted, there were different phrases that were used to describe this concept. Open source business model gained its popularity with the rise of the internet that provided an access to other variety of production models interactive communities and communication paths. The open source business model allows the occurring of different ideas and agendas, approaches as well as priorities from more closed models with centralized development. The principles and the practices are mostly used to development of the source code for the software to be availed to the collaboration of the public and are commonly released as open source software.

Business model

As portrayed by the oracle, the business model is a term that is used to a wide range of the formal and informal descriptions used by most enterprises in representing different aspects of its businesses that include its offerings, infrastructure, trading practices, strategies, organizational structure, policies and operational processes.

By the use of the open source business model, the organizations are able to enterprise and describe their business models. This is likely to have more impact and effect to the usage of the model compared to the traditional models because it has more concentrated closed source models that other with single distinctive closed models. The organizations are able to analyze most of the activities that happen in the organization like the strategies that are used in learning the organization. (Weber, 2005, p. 45)

Most companies that have been using the closed source business model have found it difficult to venture in to software market due to lack of open source approach. The closed source business models tend to operate in limited peripheral with the third party on none-disclosure agreements. In most cases the closed source models uses paid developers to achieve their goals while on the hand open source business model, their goals are achieved through the efforts of voluntary workforce for those involved though the data wring is done by paid programmers. The new code is developed and then reviewed mostly by a large number of people and since some of these people are familiar with these system, their views are take and analyzed therefore quality is assured. (Lerner & Tirole, 2005, P. 99-120)

In this case the open source business model will eventually supersede the traditional or closed source business model in some way or another. This evidenced as most businesses are willing to give their information in the internet through the use of software and reach more people for recommendation than other tradition models would do. Lerner, 2006, p. 111-119)

Conclusion

With the rise of the internet, the open source business model has been on the growing tread for most of the businesses have gone in the software business. Open source business model has to be approved by millions of people as they are familiar with the system. The closed source business model cannot give all the business information due to limitation given through their limited interaction with the third party.

The closed source models end up using more money in paying the developers to achieve their goal without recommendations from the users of the system as compared to open source model that has to certify by millions of people. This has contributed to shifting of most businesses from the closed source business model to open source business model.