Gerald Graffs Hidden Intellectualism - 1503 Words

College has always been a process that introduces students to academic challenges that are not present during high school. So when my professor assigned Gerald Graffs essay, Hidden Intellectualism, I thought this was his thesis. â€Å"Missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work. (Graff 142) I thought that this was his thesis because it explains the main idea of the essay but I assumed its purpose because of where it’s placed. I am so used to reading an essay in high school where the thesis is located right in the first paragraph. So naturally that is where I look for it. However, with more reading I knew that the following is the thesis, not only because it discusses the main topic, but†¦show more content†¦During my very first session, Adam didn’t know exactly what a thesis statement was. His professor had made remarks on his paper that he needed a stronger thesis. Wyatt his tutor made sure he understood tha t a thesis needs to be your big idea or your general claim, by stating, ‘Your thesis should be your main statement†. Your thesis must answer a question without having any counter arguments. With that being said, Adam understood that day that he needs to find his general claim in his paper. He did that by revising his essay and finding his big idea. He asks himself a question regarding what his essay is about and that would be part his thesis. If you don’t have a claim for your paper, it makes it difficult to comprehend what exactly you as a writer is trying to get across. A thesis should also be written with the reader in mind with a road map they could follow along easily. A road map is basically the direction you want your reader to take when reading your essay. You want your thesis to start at the beginning and power forward clearly to the end. No detours, no circles. If you write with the reader in mind you are more likely to communicate successfully. The read er should not waste the effort that would go into understanding the substance of the writing, in order to guess what the writer intended to mean. You have to lead the reader inShow MoreRelatedHidden Intellectualism : An Analysis Of Gerald Graffs Hidden Intellectualism701 Words   |  3 Pagesthat one who is so intelligent about so many things in life seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work. This is how Gerald Graff’s essay titled â€Å"Hidden Intellectualism begins. Although this is not Graffs personal belief, he is approaching us with a common stereotype. After reading Graffs article I would say that I agree with him from beginning to end. Gerald Graff begins with differentiating between â€Å"book smarts† and â€Å"street smarts. Book smart is defined as a person who is intelligentRead More Gerald Graffs Hidden Intellectualism Essay1644 Words   |  7 PagesCo-author of â€Å"They Say/I Say† handbook, Gerald Graff, analyzes in his essay â €Å"Hidden Intellectualism† that â€Å"street smarts† can be used for more efficient learning and can be a valuable tool to train students to â€Å"get hooked on reading and writing† (Graff 204). Graff’s purpose is to portray to his audience that knowing more about cars, TV, fashion, and etc. than â€Å"academic work† is not the detriment to the learning process that colleges and schools can see it to be (198). This knowledge can be an importantRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Dr. Gerald Graffs Hidden Intellectualism890 Words   |  4 PagesWhy don’t schools take advantage of a student’s so-called â€Å"street smarts†? Why weigh down students with heavy textbooks when they could be learning from resources that they enjoy? This is exactly the argument Dr. Gerald Graff makes in his article Hidden Intellectualism, where Graff attempts to convince teachers to broaden the scope of school curriculum to accommodate street smarts and m ore popular topics. To persuade teachers that this method of teaching is effective, Graff uses personal anecdotesRead MoreLangston Hughes Theme for English B and Gerald Graff’s Hidden Intellectualism882 Words   |  4 PagesLangston Hughes â€Å"Theme for English B† and Gerald Graff’s essay â€Å"Hidden Intellectualism† portray racial separation and intellectual isolation, respectively. Hughes’ essay is poetic justice, and Graff’s is a call to arms. Hughes’ is short and to the point and is simply what it is, no arguing or convincing, just raw thought. Graff’s is highly intellectual; offering examples and reasoning, and it could even be seen as a not-quite-finished plea to the nation to reevaluate our education system. But theRead MoreHidden Intellectualism : Hidden Intellectualism729 Words   |  3 PagesHidden Intellectualism Avery Mears  Abstract When it comes to the topic of hidden intellectualism, most of us will readily agree that a lot of students are seen to have an issue with it. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of is it the students fault. Whereas some are convinced it is, others maintain it is at the fault of the teachers or professors. Gerald Graff has his argument that in many cases book smarts can be hidden in street smarts. I believe that kids that struggleRead Moreâ€Å"There Must Be Many Buried Or Hidden Forms Of Intellectualism1360 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"There must be many buried or hidden forms of intellectualism that do not get channeled into academic work†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Graff 22), this said by non-other than Gerald Graff himself within his article â€Å"Hidden Intellectualism†. This quote being his overall main point of the entire article. Graff meaning that students can be intellectual even if they feel like they aren’t a book smart student. Graff argues th at students who are street smart could also be intellectual. Within Graff’s article, there are a few argumentsRead MoreHidden Intellectualism Gerald Graff Analysis787 Words   |  4 Pages In Gerald Graffs short essay, â€Å"Hidden Intellectualism,† he explains people are intelligent in their own unique way, but educators must help adolescents convey their intellects into a classroom setting. Graff targets students, teachers, and administration to educate them about a hidden intellectualism that can be found outside a classroom setting. Schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts channel them into good academic work; Gerald GraffRead MoreRichard Graff s Hidden Intellectualism871 Words   |  4 PagesUndiscovered Intellectualism: An Amendment to Hidden Intellectualism In Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff seeks to expose what he believes to be a fundamental issue in today’s schools and colleges. He brings attention to â€Å"street smarts†, students who are intelligent about so many things in life, yet their potential is overlooked because the things they are knowledgeable about are not things we associate with educated life such as cars, sports and video games. He claims that students are moreRead MoreHow Tv Makes You Smarter1532 Words   |  7 Pagesnourishing.† In a statement made by Graff in â€Å"Hidden Intellectualism†; â€Å"What doesn’t occur to us, though, is that schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work. Nor do we consider one of the major reasons why school and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns.† I think that Johnson would completely agree with Graff’s statement and would back it up with researchRead MoreHidden Intellectualism By Gerald Graff1237 Words   |  5 Pages In Gerald Graff’s essay Hidden Intellectualism he aims his writing towards schools, universities, teachers and the academic community. He responds to the situation of; teachers, schools and colleges overlooking intellectual potential of â€Å"street smarts†. His purpose in this essay is to acknowledge the readers that that there are different types of intellectualism and to point out flaws in the academia. The message Graff is trying to convey is that schools and teachers need to approach education in

The Cinematic Technique of Nausicaa Essay - 1603 Words

Our scene is set at Sandymount Shore where Leopold Bloom is attempting to rest for a moment. In what I feel is a sweet, sentimental style James Joyce writes, â€Å"Far away in the west the sun was setting and the last glow of all too fleeting day lingered lovingly on sea and strand†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (U 13. 284). The waves of the bay splash near the weedgrown rocks. A quiet stillness washes over the bay and Bloom notices three girls sitting on the rocks enjoying the fresh air. That is the feeling that I get from reading the first few lines and my cinematically inspired rendition of the events in the first page. Thematically â€Å"Nausicaa† presents several motifs that resonate throughout the chapter and have lasting effects on the overall novel. Stuart Gilbert†¦show more content†¦The subject in reference to the concept of the painting in this chapter is chiefly Gerty MacDowell. Joyce lays the scene like an establishing shot of a movie, slowly revealing specific details about the setting. I can scarcely think of the sublime nature and aesthetics of painting without thinking of the mythology surrounding the Roman goddess, Venus and her representation of sex. Like Venus, Gerty acts as a vehicle of seduction. â€Å"Her woman’s instinct told her that she had raised the devil in him and at the thought a burning scarlet swept from throat to brow till the lovely colour of her face became a glorious rose† (U 13. 295). The art of the painting functions as an approach to describing Gerty’s seductive venture as Bloom’s detumescence. Unlike any other chapter, â€Å"Nausicaa† coincides with more than one organ, the eye and nose. The eye represents sight and visual perception. In a sense, the eye represents what is called the lens of the camera. Similar to film, the perception of an image is immediately changed upon being captured. Essentially upside down upon first glance, the eye operates similarly to a camera lens and turns the images right side up. Sight through the eye is the manner in which Bloom spots Gerty. The eye allows for Bloom’s recurrent tendencies of voyeurism. The narrator comments, â€Å"†¦looking and he kept on looking, looking†¦ O! then the Roman candle burst and it was like a sigh of O!† (U 13. 300) In thisShow MoreRelatedEssay on Wonderment and Awe: the Way of the Kami4711 Words   |  19 Pagesnarrative of the Miyazaki’s films, it seems that he is attempting to move away from the contemporary sense of Shinto and its associated political discourse, and is instead seeking to redefine and recapture the ancient form of Shinto via a kind of visual cinematic practice. Honouring the Kami In ancient Japan, naturally occurring phenomena that were particularly awe-inspiring were given the title of kami, or gods, and were sometimes thought to possess the power of speech. Around the time these beliefs

Employee Engagement

Question: Assignment Task: Explain the term employee engagement. Outline the advantages of employee engagement. This should include elements like: sales growth, profitability, link between employee engagement with customer satisfaction and retention. Possible negative results of having demotivated and disengaged employees Prepare a detailed description of the practical employee engagement techniques used by your chosen organisation to motivate staff. This should include both the extrinsic and intrinsic techniques used. Possible areas to consider include leadership styles, wages, promotion of staff, and communications used within the organisation, teams and groups, training and development. Based on the findings of the research, provide recommendations which you believe would improve employee engagement at the organisation, and would overcome the barriers to implementing employee engagement. The Harvard referencing system should be used. Answer: Introduction: Employee engagement is a very necessary factor of any organization, for betterment, growth and expansion of the company. Employees generally bring in the business, as they are the representatives of the company and their interaction with the customers make them feel better about the company and draws a good image in their mind about the company and make them loyal to the company. If the organization is able to make its employees happy, then employees would make the customers of the specified organization happy. Employee engagement: The emotional feelings of the employees towards their organization of employment are called employee engagement (Walker, 2012). This emotional feeling regarding the organization generally influences the behaviors of the employees of the organization, and thus also affects the level of work of the employees. Thus, it can be said that, more the engagement, more would be the effort provided by the employees. The nature or types of jobs are also involved within the employee engagement, if the employees might feel mentally stimulated, the employee management communication, the trust between employees and management of the organization, ability of the employees to understand their contribution regarding the performance of the company through their own work, the growth opportunity of the employees within the firm, the level of pride the employees feel for their working in the specified organization (McGee, 2011). According to the vision of Sainsburys, they want to be the most trusted retailer, so that people should love to work in their organization and also to shop. The strategy of Sainsburys is to be unique and different from its competitors, and these can be only possible with the help of the satisfied employees. Thus, employee engagement plays very important role in Sainsburys. Types of Employee Engagement: Generally, there are three types of employee engagement. These are as follows: Firstly engaged, which represents such a situation where the employees usually work with a feeling of profound connection to the company where they are employed. The employees also feel to work with passion (Dickson, 2011). Thus, this type of employee engagement helps in innovation and in growth and expansion of the company. Secondly not engaged, this represents those employees which are checked out. In this type of employee engagement, employees are mainly working but not with their passion or energy (Garber, 2011). Thus, the result of the work is not much satisfactory here. Here work of an employee is equivalent to an individual walking in his sleep. Thirdly actively disengaged, this represents a situation, where the employees are not only unhappy but are also busy in showing their unhappiness in the organization and in their work (Dickson, 2011). Thus, this type of employee engagement is very harmful for an organization, as this type of actively disengaged employees also affect the other employees and their contribution towards the organization. Sainsburys human resource department has appointed a shrinkage specialist team to reduce the levels of wastage, loss and boost of the employees to maintain engaged type of employee engagement. Dimensions Of Employee Engagement The dimensions of employee engagement are What does the employee gets Employee engagement depends upon what the employees are getting in exchange of doing a job. This perk includes incentives, benefits, increment, and culture of the organization (Dhar, Kaila and Nair, 2009). What does the employee gives This depends upon the relationship between the seniors of an organization and the juniors. The employee should be well acquainted to the responsibilities the employee holds in the organization and also what they need to give to the organization. Do the employee belongs to the organization When an organization that includes the employees in their decision making, it gives the employees a sense of belonging in the organization. It gives the employee a sense that the individual is a part and parcel of the organization and not there just to do the work (Ryde and Sofianos, 2014). How can the employee grow Motivating the employee with new challenges and growth and giving them timely increment and promotions gives the employee an idea of how it will help in personal growth. The employee will be motivated when the individual has knowledge about the career growth and the contribution will also increase towards the organization (Dhar, Kaila and Nair, 2009). Sainsbury has retained 15,000 employees who have contributed to the company with 20 years of their professional career. Among these 15,000, there are 195 employees who have reached 40 years in the company. Sainsbury has started the Convenience Training College to train the team leaders, to achieve the dimension of the employee engagement (Ryde and Sofianos, 2014). Increase In Employee Engagement The business of an organization largely contributes to the employee engagement. The more the organization will grow, the more the people will get attracted to the organization. Before joining an organization, an individual first checks the history of the organization, annual output and how the organization will help in individual growth of the employee (Armstrong, 2013). Hence, an organization should work to enhance their business in order to increase employee engagement. Other factors within the organization which help in increasing employee engagement are providing better incentives to the employees, so that they get motivated. Provided the organization maintains a healthy atmosphere in the workplace, for example, marinating good relationship between juniors and seniors, healthy competition among employees, building trust among each other, they will also help in employee engagement (Armstrong, 2013). Sainsbury has employed around 11,400 individuals who have reached the age of 60 in the stores across the country (Garber, 2011). They emphasized on employee engagement, by taking the annual colleague survey through groups like, Great Place to Work groups. Sainsbury employs various motivational theories to motivate the employees. They provide the employees timely incentives, and staff reward schemes. The idea of these reward schemes was started by Sainsburys direct business team, to enhance the productivity, increase sales, and inspire the employees to perform better. Sainsbury rewards the employees by giving them condition free bonus cards. The employees can avail discounts up to 1000 (Garber, 2011). The cards are initially deactivated, but once the employee orders something, the card gets activated. The person can buy anything starting from clothes, beauty products, and health items to food. Relationship Between Motivation And Employee Engagement Motivation plays a very important role in an employees work-life. It is also helpful in maintain the work-life balance of an employee. Only motivated employees are found to be more engaged to their work as well as more loyal towards their employers. A motivated employee can achieve the goals of an organization more enthusiastically and rapidly. A healthy relationship between employer and employee also improves employee-engagement. Proper communication within the staff and involvement of employees in the decision making process, is the key strength of Sainsburys employee engagement activities.Rivera, A. and Flinck, J. (2011). Motivational level of the employees, within an organization can be improved byproviding a positive working environment for the employees, by appreciating their work by giving rewards, incentives and recognition, by involving the employees in the decision-making process of the organization, by increasing employee engagement, open communication, encouraging the employees to develop their skills and abilities and a continues evaluation and measurement of job satisfaction is necessary. Good organizations conduct a job satisfaction survey at least once a year. Managers can help employees achieve an overall job satisfaction by motivating them, and an employees internal motivation drive will help increase performance on the job. Sainsbury gives due importance to employee engagement activities as a result, it employs over 20,000 employees for more than 20 years. Hence, employee engagement in the given company has helped the company to survive in the market for long and also help taste success, and maintain a strong, healthy and long-term relationship with its customers. The Impact Of Employee-Engagement On Profitability Employee-engagement has a very powerful impact on the profitability of the company. Engaged employees are loyal towards the company, are secured about their jobs, hence work harder towards achieving the organizational goals of the company, and hence help maximizing profit for the company. Sainsbury lays emphasis on employee engagement programs. Brajer-Marczak, R. (2014). Sainsbury believes in collecting a regular feedback from its staff as well as its clients so as to get a continual information about its products and hence is able to maintain a healthy relationship with its employees as well as its customers, which also help to continuously innovate its product and provide innovative and better services to its employees. The senior management staff of the company makes a weekly visit to all its stores to enquire about the progress of work. By conducting a survey, Sainsbury has found that higher the level of employee engagement higher is the level of sales and hence higher profit. It was found that employee engagement contributes to about 15% growth of the yearly growth of a store. The Impact Of Employee-Engagement On Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is the ultimate objective or the ultimate aim of any company. In todays world customers do not hesitate to switch their loyalty towards the companies and hence it is very important on the part of the company to give special importance to customer satisfaction. Continues innovation of products and services leads to customer satisfaction, also continuous feedback from the customers also helps improving the level of customer satisfaction. As, Sainsburys employees give a weekly visit to all its stores, hence they get a first hand information about the feedback of the customers which helps them to improve its products and services as per the wishes of the customers and hence satisfy the customers. Sainsbury also gives ample importance to the suggestions given by its employees to improve the performance of the company as well as helps in achieving the goal of customer satisfaction. The Impact Of Employee-Engagement On Growth Of The Organization Employee engagement also plays an important role in the growth of the organization. Satisfied employees are more loyal towards the company and hence are more concerned about the growth of the company; as a result work harder to achieve the goals of the company. Employee engagement helps in maintaining a healthy and a long- term relationship between the employers as well as employees. Sainsbury has found that employee engagement contributes to about 15% growth of the yearly growth of a store. In a global survey, it was found that the companies, which had, at least 25% growth in employee engagement has accounted for twice-net annual income. On the other-hand, the companies, which had lower, level of employee engagement amounted to about 28% less than the average growth. The Impact Of Employee-Engagement On Employee Retension Employee engagement is also helpful in retaining employees. As, employee engagement helps in building a long-term relationship with the organization, it also helps retain the employees. In Sainsbury, more than 15000 employees are been working for 20 years. In addition, approximately more than 195 employees are working for more than 40 years. About 11,600 employees are over sixty years of age. J-sainsbury.co.uk, (2015) The Impact Of Employee-Engagement On Performance Employee engagement also has a strong impact on the performance of the company and on the performance of the employees as well. A healthy employer-employee relationship ensures high level of performance of the employees as a result the productivity of the company also increases. This is the reason, Sainsbury is able to sustain in the market for so long and has maintained a sustained growth. Disadvantage Of Disengaged And Demotivated Employee The most important disadvantage of unmotivated and disengaged employees is increase in number of resignations (Harb, 2011). Various factors that contribute to demotivated employees are unhealthy work culture, absence of trust factor among employees, disregard of individual performance and so on. Disengaged employees are mostly underperformers, if an employee is not engaged in any work, the efficiency will decrease, and hence it will result in laziness and lack of motivation in work. Demotivated employees can also affect the business of an organization which will affect the profitability of the company (Smith, 2011). If an individual does not find any interest in the work, that individual will take day-offs from work, as a result affecting the companys business. If the rate of employee retention decreases, the recruitment process of the organization will increase. Every time, a new employee joins, that person will need sometimes to get used to the organization. Hence, it will affect t he business of the organization as a whole (Smith, 2011). Sainsbury in collaboration with shrinkage specialists Checkpoint Systems worked towards decreasing the level of loss, wastage and enhance availability. A study was carried out to find the shortcoming, where 200000 employees were interviewed to study the relationship between employee engagement and retail loss. The result said 25% of the stores with least employee engagement could gain 19.6% of reduction in loss of profits that was affected due to lack of availability. The study also revealed that if the employee engagement rate was increased then it would result in 25% reduction in shrinkage, 9.8% waste reduction, and 9.5% loss of cash could be saved. The collaboration of Sainsbury with ECR has helped the company to understand the relation between employee engagement and business enhancement. It is due to this study that Sainsbury has got a clear idea about the disadvantage of disengaged or demotivated employees (halliwell, 2014). Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that employee engagement and motivation is a very important factor for an organization. If an organization wants to flourish the business, the organization should keep in mind the various factors that increase employee engagement, because it is these employees in the organization that helps the company to grow (Karsan and Kruse, 2011). An organization should also keep in mind the welfare of the employees. The organization should motivate the employees by engaging the people to do challenging tasks, so that the employees do not get disengaged. The organization should introduce various schemes and bonus cards, using which the employees can get discounts in various commodities. Sainsbury has done a good job by introducing the scheme cards where the individuals can avail discounts up to 1000 in various commodities like, clothes, food, health products and so on. All these schemes motivate the employees to perform better and contribute to the growth of the organization. Recommendations Sainsbury gives ample importance to employee-engagement activities. Sainsbury mostly involve its employees in the decision-making process, other than that the company must involve other methods of motivating the employees as well. Providing incentives to employees, rewarding them, encouraging them to perform better, taking interest in their personal career growth as well, etc. The company must ensure that its employees take pride in whatever they do and are satisfied with their jobs. This helps to improve the level of employee engagement in the company. The company should also make efforts to make the employees comfortable to work in their organization. There are many employee engagement activities or methods which can be implemented in order to increase the employee engagement. Such processes includes sensitivity training, simulation programs, role plays, in-basket exercises, etc. All these help to improve the inter as well as intra personal relationships within employees. References Brajer-Marczak, R. (2014). Employee engagement in continuous improvement of processes. Management, 18(2). Bridger, E. (2014). Employee engagement. London: Kogan Page. CONNOR, J. (2011). Sainsbury's Talks Talent and Joins the Employee Engagement Taskforce. [online] Available at: https://www.humanresourcesiq.com [Accessed 19 Jul. 2015]. Garber, P. (2011). Coaching employee engagement training. Alexandria, Va.: ASTD Press. J-sainsbury.co.uk, (2015). J Sainsbury plc / Home. [online] Available at: https://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk [Accessed 19 Jul. 2015]. RAYTON, B. (2012). Employee Engagement Task Force. [online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net [Accessed 19 Jul. 2015]. Rivera, A. and Flinck, J. (2011). Employee-Led, Employee Engagement in the Federal Government: SAMHSA PeopleFirst. Advances in Developing Human Resources. WALKER, P. (2013). Real-world facts about Employee Engagement. [online] Available at: https://www.marketingcompass.co.uk [Accessed 19 Jul. 2015]. Armstrong, M. (2013). How to manage people. London: Kogan Page. Dhar, U., Kaila, H. and Nair, J. (2009). 40 Management Lessons from Corporate World. Himalaya Pub. House. Garber, P. (2011). Coaching employee engagement training. Alexandria, Va.: ASTD Press. halliwell, j. (2014). Sainsbury's tackles employee engagement to reduce shrinkage. [online] TheGrocer.co.uk. Available at: https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/people/people-news/sainsburys-tackles-employee-engagement-to-reduce-shrinkage/373782.article [Accessed 19 Jul. 2015]. Harb, S. (2011). Employee engagement. Davenport, Ia.: St. Ambrose University. Karsan, R. and Kruse, K. (2011). We. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Ryde, R. and Sofianos, L. (2014). Creating Authentic Organizations. London: Kogan Page. Smith, K. (2011). Deep engagement and disengaged reason. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 22(1), pp.40-55. Dickson, D. (2011).Fostering employee engagement. Amherst, Mass.: HRD Press. Garber, P. (2011).Coaching employee engagement training. Alexandria, Va.: ASTD Press. McGee, R. (2011).Employee engagement. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Walker, S. (2012).Employee engagement and communication research. London: Kogan Page.

Napster Essays - Virtual Communities, Metallica, File Sharing

Napster Napster: (http://www.Napster.com) is a company that operates exclusively online as a virtual music forum. Napster not only allows its visitors the ability to participate in ongoing discussions through its message board forums and online virtual chat rooms, but it also allows its visitors the capability to exchange music files (MP3s) with other Internet users. Because Napster is a virtual online public forum, Napster should be protected under the First Amendment. Under the First Amendment, we the people, are protected by these rights of freedom of speech and assembly. The idea of people coming together in one specific area of the Internet and being able to talk about music is essentially a right of all Americans. We have the right to freedom of assembly and the right to freedom of speech. This is why Napster should not be shut down. Napster should be protected under the First Amendment. What is a Napster? Shawn Fanning was a nineteen-year-old college student at Northeast University, when he first introduced his program Napster. Fanning had two loves: one was sports and the other was computers. As his curiosity grew for computers, he decided to stop playing sports. He then concentrated most of his time working with computers. He primarily focused on two aspects of the computer, programming and the Internet. During his freshman year at Northeast University, in 1998, Fanning was trying to enter computer science classes higher than the entry level (Jones, 2001, 1A). Not finding anything challenging about the courses he was enrolled in, Fanning decided to start writing a Windows based program in his spare time. He spent most of his time in chat rooms with experienced programmers who knew the ?tricks of the trade,? so to speak, of computer networking. Shawn's roommate loved music files, most commonly known as MP3's, but disliked most music sites that had limited music fil es available. He also disliked the idea of having to search endlessly from website to website for songs. Fanning, having this in mind, and his programming skills at hand, he wrote a program that he entitled Napster. He used the idea of all users being connected to one central computer server, and having access to each other's music files that users wished to share (?MTV News,? 2000, 1). Spoken in a more technical manner ?Napster makes its application software freely available for download by consumers from its website. This software allows users to connect their PCs to and participate in the Napster peer-to-peer file indexing system. Users are not required to share any files with others, either as a condition of using the Napster system or in order to obtain files from other users? (Reuters, 1999). In short, Napster is a facilitator that allows its users to trade music files. Fanning created it because other music-trading sites were in his view, unreliable. The idea of program sharing MP3s and giving people the ability to make customized compilation CDs (also known as burning a CD) of their favorite artists. Songs may sound brilliant to the users of Napster, but to the musicians whom creatively write the music, this is in their view, is a form of stealing. They have not only spent hours producing and writing music, but music is something that is published and copy-written. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is currently representing the band Metallica, rapper Dr. Dre, and five other major record labels, which are all plaintiffs in a copyright infringement and piracy lawsuit against Napster (Reuters, 1999). When the Napster software is downloaded on a computer hard drive, Napter serves as an online music community, where you can conduct a search of the other users songs (MP3 files) that are currently online. According to Fanning, ?There are consistently eight hundred thousand people using the Napster service, limited on ly by their resources? (?MTV News,? 2001, 1). This statement is the exact argument that the RIAA is using to sue Napster. On May 8, 2000, the RIAA sued Napster for copyright infringement (Heilemann, 2000, 1-2). In their opinion they feel that there are over eight hundred thousand people stealing music at any given time. The RIAA believes that Napster and its founders are promoting the illegal reproduction of copyrighted music,