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SLIDE 1: INTRODUCTORY SLIDE = VICTORIA **I**

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  Hello, everyone, Clement and I are from Group 9 and we were giv en the topic of Technologies in International Businesses. We decided to focus on the use of Intranet in International Businesses and analyze various social implications that come with its usage. ======

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  An Intranet is usually described as an internal or restricted access network that is similar to functionality as the internet, but is only available to employees from the organization. For instance an organization use the Intranet to share specific information such as documents, any current announcements, new product details etc, while only allowing those in the company to access it      ======

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  The potential of Intranet is endless as t here are more actions that can be performed on an Intranet:        ======

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 <span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"><span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)"> First, Intranet allows c ommunication and collaboration        ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"><span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)"> workers can        ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"><span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)"> -send and receive e-mail, faxes, voice mail, and paging        ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"><span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)"> -discuss in chat rooms        ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"><span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)"> -have audio and video conferencing        ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"><span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)"> -post i nhouse blogs         ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)">  <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"><span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)">-update Databases        ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"> <span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)">Intranet also allows  <span style="color: rgb(143, 10, 66)">Web publishing        ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"> - develop and publish hyperlinked multi-media documents such as:       ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"> It allows Business operations and management and Intranet portal management       ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"> * C entrally administer all network functions including servers, clients, security, directories, and traffic       ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)">  <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"> * give users access to a variety of internal and external business tools/applications       ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"> However, it is important to understand how intranet works before we guide you into the pros and cons of Intranet. In order to have an intranet, the computers in the network do not have to have a normal internet connection or access it from the organization's internal network to the Internet itself. However, since most organization have both an intranet and internet access (sometimes called extranet), the organization will provide a gateway such as a firewall, along with other types of ways to identify the user such as authentication or encryption data or the use of VPN (virtual private networks). With these added provisions, individuals with clearance can access the intranet from outside sources. For instance an off site employee can have access to the intranet and be able to download specific reports or data. What is more is that often the sites offer hooks into corporate databases with forms and queries serving as a front-end for relational databases. The individual users access all this data through the standard Web browsers they use to access Web pages on the Internet. Overall, Intranet is based on the technologies of the Internet such as clients and servers running on the Internet protocol suite are used to build an intranet. HTTP and other Internet protocols are commonly used as well, such as FTP, File Transfer Protocol, used to transfer from one computer to another through a network. ======

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<span style="color: rgb(31, 20, 20)"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"> In this presentation, Clement and I will be focus on the social and ethical implications of the use of Intranet in international business. We will analyze the pros and cons that come specifically with the use of database and privacy technologies, and Clement will further evaluate some solutions to ethical and social implications that arise with the use of privacy technologies. ======

//**__ <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(148, 16, 37)"> Victoria's 3 and 4th slide on database:   __**//

<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">Overall, the use of Intranet in International businesses has benefited many international businesses,. But since its advantages greatly outweigh its disadvantages, more and more international companies have started to employ Intranet into their structure. John Gernster, an ardent scholar on “communication intelligence”, said that <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">it is estimated that more than 90 percent of U.S. enterprises - including quite small ones - now have an <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0)">[|intranet] up and in some stage of evolution.” Some of the major social implications are the efficiency of communication and increase in workforce productivity. Also, Intranet can help to promote a common culture platform for different segments of international businesses. However, a con is that Intranet can be costly and expensive to set up and maintain. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">Intranet can contribute to make the collaboration and workings of big international businesses much more efficient as they can convey many types of information such job allocation, achievements, background information, calendars, and many more type of information. This can be done so by having an electronic database system. In the beginning, <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">corporate intranets were nothing more than HTML versions of paper documents that were updated frequently. These pages are difficult to maintain and rarely keep the interest of users. From some aspects, Intranets that rely on static HTML documents to deliver information to employees quickly become boring and dull. This way, the content on Intranet was no different than the web pages on public world wide webs. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">

<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">In order to make work productivity more efficient, customizations <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'"> can help users to locate and view information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">. Users can customize their user profiles and preferences so the database intranet can deliver customized content and individualized web applications. For example, when user of the management team has customized his profile so that a specific table for the management department can automatically appears on his homepage, he can save time from searching and browsing through an entire database with tones of information. Especially in multinational enterprises, the databases often contain ENORMOUS amount of data and information. Sequentially, it would be extremely time consuming if a user has to fish through the database and find information. With his unique customization, he can efficiently and easily attain the information that’s relevant for him. Hence, he will save time to search for relevant data through a huge database.

<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">Another factor that contributes to work efficiency is the Internet Nature of Intranet. As you might know, intranet is primarily build on a web browser interface such as Internet Explorer or Firefox and VPN (Clement will discuss about it later). This ultimately means that users can access data held in organization’s database anytime, although subject to security provisions - from anywhere within the company workstations. Sometimes, some companies also allow workers to go on Intranet anywhere with the internet connection, (so Intranet is not only limited to company computers). The ubiquity (which means everywhere) helps people who are traveling away on business trips, visiting other work companies around the globe, or even people who are unable to attend work, to perform their jobs in confidence that they have the most current and correct information. Therefore, people can work anywhere, instead of only confining the work places to at work. (Although this might not be a good thing for workers, it can truly help the productivity of the company: ) <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">Database also helps communications to be more effective. Although database is not as commonly recognized for its benefits in communication, it plays a major role in leading to mutual understanding and sharing of information. <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'">Right now, as you know, the intranet manages its own database that publishes much up-to-date content in the database. The database is also dynamic, which means it allows users to add their individual knowledge, new discoveries, and ideas of different information while the employees on the other are constantly updated with new information. In international businesses, it is even more important for people to have common knowledge on certain subjects in order to discuss and collaborate. Database, by allowing every employee to easily access the latest information and also allowing one to add ones’ discoveries, information, and knowledge, into the database, the workers from around the globe can be more informed about information that comes from a particular department in a different country and stand on the same platform of common knowledge and the companies can overcome the barrier of and communications. <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-family: 'Arial Narrow'"> <span style="color: rgb(24, 0, 255)"> http://www.erp.ufl.edu/images/security.jpg Improving internet technologies have provided businesses a lot of advantages such as the cohesion of all the companies’ data on one site for all the employees to access. But for big international businesses, Security and Privacy of data can be a big issue if the intranet is not designed properly. The rival companies would benefit greatly from a data leak. Alternatively a hacker blackmails your company because he has stolen some valuable information. But before, I talk about how security might be at risk, let me talk about some of the most common privacy technologies employed in intranets.
 * Slide 4 and 5 on Privacy and implications**
 * [[image:http://www.erp.ufl.edu/images/security.jpg width="558" height="244" caption="external image"]] ||
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The simplest one is a firewall. A firewall is a software program than protects the computer, server, or network from harmful viruses and ambitious hackers. While emails can still go through the wall, search engine spiders, like those set by Google and FTP clients are not allowed to enter. At the same time, the firewall also conceals the home computer when it sends signals out into the internet. It acts as a proxy concealing the IP number of the nodes in the network.

The safest intranet is one that is hosted on a private server. Public servers are simply too vulnerable and offers no protection against unwanted guests. Most servers today provide the user with many advanced security options, one being the Username and Password authentication system. Even if the hacker managed to breach the firewall, they need to know the Username and Password to enter. There is only one correct password for one correct username. This technology is very effective unless the hacker uses advanced hacking software to forcefully get the username and password.

Since International Businesses have multiple offices worldwide, the intranet will be hosted on some form of a Virtual Private Networks. A Virtual Private Network, VPN for short is basically a tunnel that connects two points through the internet. The 2 endpoints can be from the main office to the branch office in another country for example. A VPN uses some form of hardware or software to encrypt the data so that outsiders cannot be read by outsiders.

I have never heard of a security device that cannot be broken or by-passed. This is because humans will always find a new way to pass an obstacle. Therefore, the above technologies all have some form of a potential weakness. A firewall and a username/password system can ultimately be brought down by experienced hackers. There are not many ways to prevent this type of intrusion unless by putting up more firewalls and faking the IP addresses.

Authentication of the user is a very crucial part of maintaining intranet security. Since the VPN has left that office building, it can come under the attack of ambitious hackers and viruses simply because it is passing through the internet. As said by Stephen Cohn of nCipher inc, “VPN technology at present works best for encrypting traffic between two known points that are accepted as valid destinations for traffic: once a link has been established, the technology is used to encrypt the information which is sent, not for establishing the validity of the destination to which it is being sent.” At the same time, a VPN makes it hard for users outside the office to access the company intranet. A worker in Bangkok can access something in New York provided the 2 offices are linked in a VPN. A worker on holiday or at home might experience some difficulty because it is outside the tunnel.

The degree of how safe something is is dependant on how strong the other side is. A lock was the best security device back then because only people with a key can access it. Then the lock became obsolete when inventions like lock picks and lock breakers appeared on the market. Ironically, the tools that were originally intended to solve problems, like the lock breaker, became tools to breach security. Companies can do as much protection on their assets as they wish, but eventually someone will find a detour.

Another way data can be leaked is when an employee posts some sensitive information for all employees to see. This is more of an ethical issue of security that can not be as easily solvable as just installing a firewall. Intranets are meant to be a tool of collaboration that enables all employees to communicate effectively. While the creation of the Intranet certainly created new ways of doing things in a company, it also challenges the traditional office hierarchy.

The reason why companies have a hierarchy in the first place is because there needed to be a system of authority. If everybody gets an equal say in things, there would never be a 100% agreement on any topic. A basic hierarchy has one person who makes the big decisions on the top and some people reporting to him. Then there are more people reporting to the deputy’s and it all expands as the power chain goes down. Soon you have so many people that you need someway to secure your information. The bottom of the command chain has no reason to look at the information that the CEO has to deal with. So limits are placed at every level to ensure that sensitive information stays within a certain group. The possibility of company spies infiltrating a business is not impossible. If there was no form of hierarchy, then the spy could steal all of the rival company’s secrets and gain a better advantage.

All offices have a hierarchy. An international business has multiple hierarchies that form into one big one. This might have been a standard in the early days before the 1990s. Even since the internet became public in 1991, companies found internets to be quite useful. The original internet used at CERN was meant for the different scientists to collaborate and share their findings. As the world grew increasingly “flat”, collaboration became a very effective business model that all businesses adopted. International businesses found this intranet technology to be very useful because the worldwide branches can now access the same information and communicate better than they used to. This can eventually lead to a lot of problems, more of them ethical than technical.

As I said before, the new intranet business model encourages all the employees to contribute something to the company. If the basic workers had the opportunity to give their input, they might feel more valuable and work more efficiently. But it then comes down to. “How much Power should they get?” or “How much should they be allowed to see?” Transitioning from the horizontal hierarchy to the horizontal hierarchy is like the French Revolution. The King can’t let go of the power and when the revolution succeeded, people wanted their King back because they government was a disaster. The same goes for an international business, how will the power be distributed without total anarchy? People argue that the intranet only allows for the leakage of sensitive data. But even in times before computers, if employees discovered some sensitive information, they would pass it on anyways.

In conclusion, collaboration and sharing of data is not a bad thing. Power chains will never turn totally flat and should not be perfectly vertical in the 21st century. Therefore the best solution is for a slanted hierarchy when employees feel empowered while the big officers still make the big decisions.

=**Conclusion-slide 6(This way we will be doing equal amount of slides.**=

So you now know hopefully something about the intranet and the social implications generated by it. Like all things, intranet technology has some advantages and some disadvantages as well. Thank you for listening to our presentation. Blah blah blah...