The distance selling directive: consumer champion or complete irrelevance?

This paper investigates the origins, significant content, UK and EU implementation and outcomes of Directive 97/7/EC on distance selling, hereafter referred to as the Distance Selling Directive (DSD). The DSD has been implemented in national legislation by all EU Member States. In the UK this legislation was the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000 No. 2334), hereafter referred to as the CPDSR

Economic evaluation of LIFE methodology

Background: The LIFE project (Lifecycle Information For E-Literature) was carried out during 2004-2006 by a consortium consisting of The British Library and University College London Library Services . The project was joint venture funded by JISC under the programme area Institutional Management Support and Collaboration. The project has received favourable feedback, for instance during a workshop organised at the end of it, and JISC has agreed to fund a second phase during 2007-2008. The consortium has been strengthened by three associate partners (SHERPA-LEAP Consortium, SHERPA-DP and the Medical Research Council). In addition some funds were reserved for the use of an outside economic consultant for an evaluation of the life-cycle models that emerged as the key results from the first phase. The LIFE-2 project consists of five work packages, and this report is part of the first of these. The objective of WP 1 is formulated in the LIFE 2 Project proposal as follows: Validation of the economic modelling and methodology for the Lifecycle and Generic Preservation formulae developed in Phase 1 of the LIFE project, with technical and presentational development of the models. Cloudlake Consulting Oy has been commissioned by the consortium to carry out this validation. The report has been written by Bo-Christer Björk. He is professor of Information Systems Science at the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration in Helsinki, Finland. He has been conducting research concerning the scientific publishing process since 2000 and has published several peer reviewed journal articles as well as conference papers on the subject. He is often an invited speaker at international workshops in this area

Tax Constitutional Questions in “Obamacare”: National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius in Light of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and Speiser v. Randall: Conditioning a Tax Benefit on the Nonexercise of a Constitutional Right

[Excerpt] “The phrase “Tax Constitutional Questions” may seem to be an oxymoron or at least an interesting juxtaposition somewhat akin to the phrase “passive activity” derived from Section 469 of the Internal Revenue Code, which is familiar to tax practitioners, professors, and perhaps others. It has been noted elsewhere that it is seemingly normal that tax professors (and tax practitioners) are somewhat isolated from such weighty issues as constitutional questions. … Despite what may be the tax bar’s seeming reluctance to engage in constitutional questions, those questions are nevertheless thrust upon tax practitioners and professors. Perhaps nowhere has the intersection of taxation and constitutional law been clearer than in the recent United States Supreme Court case on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Sensible Agnosticism: An Updated Approach to Domain-Name Trademark Infringement

The Internet era has brought a new battlefield to U.S.-trademark-law disputes: domain names. Trademark owners have vigorously challenged the registration of domain names that consist of-or merely include-their trademarked terms, suing these domain-name registrants in U.S. courts for trademark infringement. During the early years of the Internet, courts often found consumer confusion-and thus trademark infringement-in these cases. As Internet use has developed, however, many courts have not recognized the growing sophistication of online consumers. This Note proposes that U.S. courts adapt their analyses to recognize evolving consumer behavior and expectations. This updated analysis, based on a 2010 Ninth Circuit opinion, will promote trademark law\u27s historical focus on accuracy by encouraging courts to recognize the right of domain-name registrants to engage in accurate, nonconfusing speech

How Design Plays Strategic Roles in Internet Service Innovation: Lessons from Korean Companies

In order to survive in the highly competitive internet business, companies have to provide differentiated services that can satisfy the rapidly changing users’ tastes and needs. Designers have been increasingly committed to achieving user satisfaction by generating and visualizing innovative solutions in new internet service development. The roles of internet service design have expanded from a narrow focus on aesthetics into a more strategic aspect. This paper investigates the methods of managing design in order to enhance companies’ competitiveness in internet business. The main research processes are to: (1) explore the current state of internet service design in Korea through in-depth interviews with professional designers and survey questionnaires to 30 digital design agencies and 60 clients; (2) compare how design is managed between in-house design groups and digital design agencies though the case studies of five Korean companies; and (3) develop a taxonomy characterizing four roles of designers in conjunction with the levels of their strategic contributions to internet service innovation: visualist, solution provider, concept generator, and service initiator. In addition, we demonstrate the growing contributions of the strategic use of design for innovating internet services, building robust brand equity, and increasing business performance. Keywords: Design Management; Internet Business; Internet Service Design; Digital Design; Digital Design Agency; In-House Design Group, Case Study</p

Exploring the Integration of Disability Awareness into Tertiary Teaching and Learning Activities

A desire to have every student attending our University be aware of, and reflect on, disability in their studies and future careers, initiated our project to explore how to enhance disability awareness within all our University’s papers. In this project we systematically reviewed pertinent literature and ran an action research workshop for staff. Strategies to enhance disability awareness identified in the literature and workshop were presented and verified at an interactive conference presentation. Embedding disability awareness into curricula is challenging; staff considered themselves powerless to bring about change in their departments, but thought that one way to do so would be by modelling inclusive behaviour and by introducing subtle inclusive practices into papers taught. The identified strategies may be of use to others contemplating similar curricular modifications

Airline Ticket E-Reservation: Adoption Among Malaysians

Sistem tempahan tiket penerbangan telah banyak direvolusikan oleh syarikat-syarikat penerbangan melalui penggunaan Internet dan pengenalan alat-alat mudah alih moden. The air ticket reservation system has been much revolutionized by the airline companies through the usage of the Internet and introduction of modern mobile devices

Towards experience management for Search Engine Optimisation

Websites of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) can gain an added advantage by getting listed in the search engine’s results page during the search sessions of the searchers. The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) enables websites to become visible in search engines during search sessions for its featured products or services. It generates additional revenue for the websites. SEO is a complex technique. Its knowledge and experience gained from optimising websites in the past is highly valuable and applicable to optimise websites. This paper dis- cusses the problem of optimisation of websites based on the experience gained by the authors from optimisation of several case study websites. Process models have been generated in order to capture experience of implementing essential elements of SEO and to explain the procedure of implementation of the fundamental on-page SEO techniques that yielded results for the case study websites

Evaluating whether a change in organisational structure would improve its competitive advantage

The purpose of this research is to study and analyse the internal and external structure of Ultimate Clean ltd, where I do work. We have put concentration on background of the company in the starting. This information is followed by aim and scope of research, which shows that what is the research question and what is scope of our research. After that Literature review is elaborated under five main subheadings. These subheading gives us deep information about the literature of organisation structure, competitive advantage. After that, Organisational context with internal and external analyse of the company is given which highlight the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the company. Some external factors like political, economic, social and legal, are also discussed in this report. Then some information is given for method of research that why we use it, where and when it is used. Some limitations are also discussed in this report of method. After this, result section comes. In this section, we discussed deeply about the answers of customers, employees and employer. We prepare a discussion of the result and conclude it wisely. In the end, some recommendations are also given to improve organisational structure of Ultimate Clean ltd. We suggest a new structure for the organisation to develop within company to have a good competitive advantage in market place. A big list of references is also given in the end of this report