Shawshank Redemption vs Romulus My Father Essay Example for Free

Shawshank Redemption vs Romulus My Father Essay Belonging refers to a sense of feeling accepted or welcome either physically or spiritually to a group or club. â€Å"A feeling of belonging depends on a strong relationship, developed over a period of time†. This statement suggests that a strong relationship is created or evolved over a period of time, it is evident in todays society through terms such as â€Å"childhood friends†. The sentiment â€Å"A feeling of belonging depends on a strong relationship, developed over a period of time† is portrayed in my text â€Å"Romulus my Father† by Raimond Gaita and my related text the movie â€Å"The Shawshank Redemption† directed by Frank Darabont. In â€Å"Shawshank Redemption† the year is 1947 and Andy Dufresne is ordered to serve two life sentences in Shawshank Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. Inside, Andy is subjected to violent attacks from brutal guards and fellow inmates. Slowly, he begins to make friends ,one of the most most important friendship is the one he forms with Red, who has also been convicted of murder and is Shawshanks resident black-market dealer. During his time in prison, Andys previous experience as a banker earns him favour with the guards and especially the warden ,as he begins to manage their financial affairs, soon moving on to laundering money for them. In return, Andy is permitted special privileges , which includes working in the wardens office and being able to establisha prison library for the inmates. Eventually Andys innocence is proven. However, by this time, Andy is nowhere to be found and the warden and Shawshank are left sinking in a sea of scandal. Through his time in imprisonment he creates many friendships and alliances with the guards and the inmates, however he never gives up his belief in himself and he never looses his sense of belonging to the outside world like many of the inmates. He refuses to become institutionalized. He always believed in his innocence and believed he belonged on the â€Å"outside†. Like Raimond in Romulus my father Andy Dufresne both characters do not conform to their surroundings. Raimonds surroundings being mental illness and Andy’s being institutionalization. This is due to a strong sense in their own personal belonging they know where they belong and how they belong and their surroundings will not effect nor change this. The two main characters also find or in Andy’s case creates an area where they feel safe and secure . For Andy this was his library . A place where he feels at home away from the violence of the prison. A place where he can be who he use to be, a place to belong away from the harshness of prison life . A glimmer of his past . Raimond also has a place where he feels safe and that was anywhere his dog was . His dog provides feeling of safety of being needed by another living being . Of felling a sense of belonging and acceptance that no human could replicate. Time serves as both a source of torment as well as the backdrop for the slow, eventual achievement of Andy’s escape to where he feels he belongs, his seemingly impossible goal for nearly twenty-eight years. Shawshank redefines the passage of time for the inmates, especially for the â€Å"lifers† like Andy and Red, who can only look forward to death. Hours can seem like a lifetime, and every day seems indistinguishable from the next, adding to the loneliness and burden of imprisonment. Ironically, however, time also proves to be the means of Andy’s escape and salvation and gives him hope throughout his quarter-century in Shawshank. It is ironic that the inmates feel as they don’t belong in jail, there is a scene in the movies where one of the inmates Brooks is release from prison after spending a life sentence who is released and feels that he doesn’t belong this is evident thought the quote â€Å"I cant believe how fast thing move on the out side† her refers to the world as the â€Å"outside† this projects a sense of not belonging to society. Brooks then goes on to say â€Å" maybe I should get me a gun, n rob the food way so they’d send me home† . He feels more sense of belonging inside a prison than he does out in the real world. He feels outcast not through his actions but through the passage of time â€Å"the world went and got themselves into a big dam hurry† . The passage of time in Shawshank redemption has created a strong relationship between the inmates and the prison a feeling of belonging, time has changed the world they once knew to a totally different world that is alien to them, thus institutionalizing them to a world they feel comfortable. ‘Romulus, My Father‘ composed by Raimond Gaita is an autobiographical memoir of his fathers life. It explores the Assimilation to Australian Culture in the Eyes on Raimond Gaita general hardships of migrants moving from Europe, and how he comes to belong to Australia. In â€Å"Romulus My Father† the most profound sense of belonging exists with the narrator himself. The narrator delivers his observations in a reflective and thoughtful tone. The high modality of verb choice suggests a pleasant nostalgia about events in the book. Particularly his recollections of his father, notions such as, â€Å"I loved him too deeply†¦ no quarrel could estrange us† displays the sense of belonging \ he feels with his father. This is evident even after Christina dies. He observed, â€Å"We came together as son and husband with the woman whose remains lay beneath us†. Raimond’s aspect of belonging is that of family and culture. Juxtaposed against Raimond’s belonging is the suffering of Christina in her displacement. For the mother her inability to belong is described by Raimond as, â€Å"a troubled city girl, she could not settle†¦. in a landscape that highlighted her isolation†. Raimond’s melancholy tone conveys how Christine could not fit into the community and in Australia. As a result her isolation and alienation lead her to betray the institution of family juxtaposed by â€Å"I felt awkward with her,† which shows his relationship with his mother has lost the familial belonging it once contained. The landscape plays a harsh role in ‘Romulus, My Father’, as ‘the landscape is one of rare beauty, to a European or English eye it seems desolate’ page 14. Relating to culture shock also, Romulus ‘could not become reconciled to it’ as ‘the eucalypts of Baringhup, scraggy except for the noble red gums on the riverbank, seemed symbols of deprivation and barrenness. page 14. This lack of belonging even in the landscape of Australia for Romulus creates the notion that he felt connected to his native lands in Europe, and without that connection he feels as though he does not belong. However, this can also be viewed that Romulus does not understand the land and therefore cannot appreciate its unique beauty, highlighted where ‘he set fire to the stock in order to kill the snake†¦an immigrant unused to the tinder-dry conditions of an Australian summer’ page 28. Romulus was then harshly unaccepted as ‘The local newspaper ridiculed the New Australian for his folly. ’ He partially redeemed himself in the eyes of locals where he saved Neil Mikkelsen from dying after he fell from a ladder. This can be contrasted to Raimond’s perception of the Australian landscape, one who had grown up with the land, ‘the key to the beauty of the native trees lay in the light which so sharply delineated them against a dark blue sky†¦the sight provoked a surge of affection for my primitive home. pg 62. Belonging shapes who we are. â€Å"Romulus My Father† by Raimond Gaita explores how â€Å"A feeling of belonging depends on a strong relationship, developed over a period of time†. â€Å"The Shawshank redemption† directed by Frank Darabont explores the need for belonging by gamers seeking a place in society and how time can disconnect one from somewhere they one belonged. Together these texts allow us to examine bo th positive and negative aspects time has on belonging.

Fear and Cowardice in Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Macbeth:   Fear and Cowardice    William Shakespeare's great tragedy, Macbeth is a play based more on character than deed. The play is a journey along the life of Macbeth, beginning at the apex of his career and following him to his demise. The cause of this sudden deterioration has been debated for centuries. Some attribute Macbeth's quick degeneration to ambition. Although Macbeth is not lacking in ambition, this is not the essential element that causes his demise. It is fear that permeates Macbeth--utter cowardice drives his will into sinful acts resulting in regression. Cowardice, not ambition, is the main and underlying factor which causes Macbeth to kill Duncan, to murder Banquo and to seek the aid of the witches.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The murder of Duncan is roused more by fearful confusion than by Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" (I.vii.27). After hearing the witches' prophetic greeting, Macbeth is lulled into a "fantastical" state of mind (I.iii.139). He ponders regicide, which "[s]hakes [his] single state of man that function / Is smother'd in surmise" (I.iii.140-41). During the events heralding Duncan's murder, Macbeth undergoes five changes of mind before deciding that "[they] shall proceed no further in [that] business" (I.vii.31). The hesitation to kill Duncan is the first symptom of Macbeth's fearful confusion. What causes Macbeth to suddenly change his mind and kill Duncan? Macbeth is a weak man whose "dearest partner in greatness" is his wife (I.v.10). He values her opinion above all else. After rejecting the murder plan, Macbeth is the victim of a storm of insults from Lady Macbeth: Art thou afeard/ to be the same in thine own act and valour/ as thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that/ which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,/ And live a coward in thine own esteem. (I.vii.39-43) His fear of her scorn augments the confusion within his "heat-oppressed brain", causing him to hesitantly agree to the conspiracy (II.i.39).  Ã‚   (Review MLA format and citations.)    Macbeth, too rapt within his own fear to maintain rational reasoning, becomes a pawn of his fear-born confusion, leaving his mind no other option than killing Duncan. Had the murder been caused by ambition, Macbeth would not have been so hesitant in his actions. He would have had a clear goal and could have seen a crown instead of the "air-drawn dagger" which was the "very painting of [his] fear" (III.iv.62-63). Therefore, Macbeth's regression is spurred by a fearful frenzy, not the over-ambitious plotting of a rational man.

Renaissance (1300-1650), the Industrial Revolution Essay

Throughout history, slavery has played a very prominent role in shaping the world’s societies and economies. Across three time periods in particular, slavery throughout the world has notable similarities and differences in areas such as the status of slavery, the way slavery influenced society, and the motivation for a civilization to practice slavery. These time periods are the Renaissance (1300-1650), the Industrial Revolution (1700-1900), and World Wars I and II (1914-1945). Renaissance The time period known today as the Renaissance was, as its name means, a â€Å"rebirth† of Greco-Roman values. It was a reaction against the Dark Ages and stood in stark contrast to the medieval time period before it. The practice of slavery was no exception. Whereas slavery had fizzled out during the Dark Ages, it was instituted again during the Renaissance. Slavery in the Renaissance began in Spain, and for a while the Spanish played the primary part in the slave market. Soon, though, slavery spread to the other parts of Europe. This was especially true with the case of the Italian city-states in which the Renaissance boomed. As the Renaissance grew in Italy and as the city-states expanded, slavery became more and more widespread until Italy became a main user of slaves (Hooker). In contrast to slavery in the later periods of the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars which is explained later in this essay, slavery in the Renaissance was not solely based on race, but mostly religion (at least in Europe; another type of slavery was practiced in America during the Renaissance, as explained later). Europe and Africa at that time was divided between Christians and Muslims, and so slavery in nations dominated by either religion was based on captured people from the other religion. In other words, in the Renaissance, Christians mostly enslaved Muslims and Muslims mostly enslaved Christians. In the case of the Italian Renaissance, Muslims slaves came from â€Å"Spain, North Africa, Crete, the Balkans, and the Ottoman Empire† (Hooker). The vast majority of slaves at the beginning of the Renaissance were white (Hooker). But as the Renaissance progressed, black slaves began to be used more and more widely. In the beginning of the Renaissance, these African slaves were acquired through Arabs in North Africa, who also held them as slaves. When the Portuguese started exploring the African coast, they participated in a black slave market, shipping slaves to the Americas and back to Europe (Guild). El Mina was the first slave trading post set up by the Portuguese on the West Coast (â€Å"Gold Coast†) of Africa (Guild). Thanks to enslaved Africans, the Portuguese were especially successful in their plantations in the islands off the west coast of Africa known as the Cape Verde, where they transported many of the Africans they enslaved to work in plantations there (Gascoigne). While most slaves in the Industrial Revolution did hard labor in fields, most slaves in the Renaissance were domestic slaves. This means that they did work in the home, doing duties for their masters around the house. Rich people in the cities almost always had one or more slaves. Instead of the brutal, inhumane treatment of slaves common in the Industrial Revolution, slave-owners during the Renaissance commonly integrated their slaves into the family. In both the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance, masters claimed all rights for their slaves; they did with them what they willed. Therefore, there arises the similarity between all three time periods in that commonly the slaves were used as sex slaves, although sex slaves in the World Wars were used mostly just for sex, not for hard labor. When masters in the Renaissance had an illegitimate child with a slave, the child was not a slave but was free (Hooker). However, when a child was born to a slave and its master in the Industrial Revolution, the child became a slave like its mother (â€Å"Master-Slave†¦). While most slaves were domestic in the Renaissance, another form of slavery was surfacing, slaves used for cheap labor in plantations. In the Renaissance, slaves were starting to be used in plantations, mostly in America, but also in plantations in Italy and off the coast of Africa (Gascoigne). So, in both the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, at least some slaves were used for hard labor. The Portuguese were the first to put slaves to work in plantations, and slaves soon came to be used on plantations in the Americas by nations such as Spain, Holland, France, England, and the Netherlands. The first slaves they enslaved in these colonies were the native peoples, but soon, the native population began to dwindle. Since Portugal had been exploring the coast of Africa and since Africa had a booming population of people, Africans became the people they predominantly enslaved (Guild). Thus, racial slavery was started. Blacks came to be viewed as lower than human, and this view spread to all the nations which came to have plantations in America. Millions of blacks were imported to plantations for sugar, spices, tobacco, coffee, etc. during the span of the Renaissance (Hornsby). Industrial Revolution Slavery went through many changes during the course of the Industrial Revolution. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, slavery on plantations that had developed in the Renaissance continued to grow in the Americas. With the success of the plantations in America, what is known as the triangular trade began to form, and this trade majorly affected the world’s economies and prosperity. This system of trade is known as the triangular trade because the directions of travel for the trade were in the shape of a triangle—from Europe to Africa to the Americas and back to Europe. Items such as weapons, liquor, jewelry, and products made from cotton were taken to Africa from Europe and traded for slaves. These were loaded on ships and taken to the Americas. Conditions in the ships were horrible. Thousands of slaves were chained in very tight spaces in the ships. Disease permeated the hold where slaves were kept. Slaves laid in their own excrement and urine, and were fed barely anything. Many slaves died or committed suicide—an average of 16% of slaves. When the horrible trip was over, the remaining slaves were auctioned and sold in slave markets to plantation owners in the Americas. The products made in the plantations, such as tobacco, coffee, sugar, spices, and molasses which could be made into rum were then shipped to Europe, completing the trade system. The British were the primary traders in this system, but other nations participated (Gascoigne). Slavery greatly affected the Industrial Revolution. It made it possible to create and grow products in a shorter period of time and for less money. All the master had to do was to provide food, which he have very little of, so slaves provided very cheap labor. In the case of America, slaves operated the new inventions such as the cotton gin to make cotton products easier. This greatly affected the economy of America. The prosperity in the South boomed as agriculture continued to see success. This cotton industry and therefore the textile industrial majorly drove the Industrial Revolution in America. It became the primary export and cash crop. Hundreds of thousands of slaves were imported until 1808, when the American slave trade was banned. Still, hundreds of thousands of slaves were moved across America to the South and West to work on cotton plantations. These plantations and slavery in general brought in a huge profit for the American people. A similarity between slavery in the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution can be seen here—both used slavery as a catalyst for economies (â€Å"Africans.. †). But a difference is that most slaves in the Renaissance were domestic slaves in homes and were considered part of the family (Hooker). However, most slaves in the Industrial Revolution were plantation slaves and were considered less than human and were subjected to incredibly harsh treatment by their masters. However, near the Industrial Revolution, there was more of an awareness of the brutalities of slavery and more of a movement to stop it than the Renaissance. The final time period that will be discussed in this essay is the World Wars from 1914 to 1945. World Wars Forms of slavery used during World Wars I and II from 1914 to 1945 were very different from slavery before it and slavery after it. The wars during this period of history had a huge impact on all aspects of society, and so the status of slavery and the motivation for slavery was largely based on the huge wars taking place. During World War I and the time after it before World War II, outright slave traffic continued to be curbed in the areas of the world still practicing slavery. The slave trade still continued underground between countries in eastern Africa, especially Ethiopia, and the Middle East, especially Arabia. Throughout this period before World War II, there were outrages about revealed underground slave trades with enslaved Africans in Liberia and the Congo, and enslaved Native Americans in northern Peru (â€Å"Slavery†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953. During his regime, millions of people were forced to work in labor camps. This was in accordance with the USSR’s Labor Code, which stated that all citizens must labor for the government. Prisoners, enemies of the state, and other convicts were sent to do hard manual labor in Siberia during this time. Citizens were accused of being enemies of the government and sent to work without a trial and without much grounds at all. Like in the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution, Stalin used his massive free labor force to build up the Soviet Union’s economy and to industrialize the nation. Labor projects included building roads and railroads, building houses and power plants, mining, cutting trees, working in fields, etc. The workers were given nothing but food. One third of all the workers died from the poor environment in which they worked and from starvation and the cold. They were brutally treated on unjust bases. Therefore, this â€Å"corrective labor,† as it was called, is really slavery at its core. World War II was the instigation of several other types of slavery, also, such as POW slavery, Holocaust slavery, and sexual slavery. Nazi Germany captured enemy civilians and soldiers and brutally enslaved them to fill the gaps in the workforce. Much of the weaponry made by the Germans during World War II was made by slaves. One manufacturing company alone – Krupp—held 100,000 slaves by the end of the war. Many of these slaves died from exhaustion, starvation, and lack of basic necessities. They were kept in stables like livestock. Those that didn’t die were forced to work in German factories and farms. In 1944, Germany held 9. 5 million slaves—7 million civilians and 2. 5 million captured soldiers. Russian women that the Germans captured were held as domestic slaves, and Russian adolescents that the Germans captured were apprenticed to German businessmen. Not only were the Germans notorious for their brutal system of slavery for prisoners of war, but even worse, they enslaved innocent Jews and other â€Å"undesirable† people during the Holocaust. As a method of exterminating them, these people were sent to labor camps where they were treated even worse than the prisoners of war. Children from 6-years-old up were forced to work in these camps. Slaves mined, built weapons, sewed, etc. Slaves there were driven to work too hard in tight spaces with the poorest of living conditions. They had poor and meager food rations and a shortage of shelter and clothing. Loads of people died from diseases such as tuberculosis, from being overworked, from the cold, and from starvation. Their corpses were systematically burned in huge crematoriums (Sylvester – everything above). The fact that there were scandals about slavery and labor camps during the time period of the World Wars indicates a similarity and difference between this time period and the Renaissance/ Industrial Revolution. A similarity is that all three time periods had some forms of slavery to enhance nations’ economies and extract resources. But a difference is that slavery in the World Wars was looked down upon and was underground, whereas it was not in the Renaissance. But there lies a similarity between the World Wars and the Industrial Revolution, in that in both, measures were enacted to end slavery and the slave trade. However, World War II had labor camps for prisoners of war and specific races, which had never been done before. It also had sexual slavery, which though it had been practiced before, never to the extent it was carried out in World War II. Some captured slaves in the World Wars were used as domestic slaves, as they were in the Renaissance. But in the World Wars, there was not the worldwide slave trade there was in the Renaissance and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Part 222 Introduction The 18th century English poet William Cowper’s poem, â€Å"Pity for Poor Africans,† accurately portrays the world’s mindset throughout history about slavery. A line from that poem reads, â€Å"I pity them [slaves] greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum? † This sums up much of the world’s motivation for millennia for slavery. Throughout history, slavery has been a way to easily derive resources and produce goods. It has played a very prominent role in shaping the world’s societies and economies. Though it may have struck a chord with peoples’ consciences, the world did not know how else to get luxuries and how to live without them, and so the world allowed this horrific practice to go on. This essay details more of how slavery was used as an economic stimulus, how the world finally took action against it, and what forms of it still were used after this action took place. Across three time periods in particular, slavery throughout the world has notable similarities and differences in areas such as the status of slavery, the way slavery influenced society, and the motivation for a civilization to practice slavery. These time periods are the Renaissance (1300-1650), the Industrial Revolution (1700-1900), and World Wars I and II (1914-1945). Conclusion As one can clearly see, slavery has been a major factor in affecting and molding the world’s economies and societies throughout all of history. It has gone through major changes, affecting the world as a whole, especially in three time periods, namely, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and World Wars I and II. Throughout all three and under many names, it was used as cheap labor to easily produce goods and advance civilizations’ economies. This slavery did, and it played a massive role in getting the world to where it is today. Without slavery, America might not have been industrialized or industrialized as quickly. Without slavery, we would not have the manufactured goods we have today. However, I am by no means condoning slavery; if slavery had not been practiced, millions of innocent, beautiful people would have lived their lives in freedom and would not have been torn away from their homeland, families, and livelihood to go labor without profit for people who abused and beat them. The Civil War would have been largely prevented if it weren’t for slavery. Though slavery was mostly domestic in the Renaissance, this does not make it any better. Also, the plantation slave emerged in that time period, and the triangular trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas continued well into the Industrial Revolution. Men achieved luxury through the pain and misery of others. Thankfully, mankind realized, though later than it should have been, how deplorable this system was. Finally, they put an end to it through abolitionist movements that spread throughout the world at the end of the Industrial Revolution. Yet, slavery continued in several other forms into the 20th century. Throughout the time period of the World Wars, labor camps emerged. Though these were seen as punishment for criminals and war prisoners, they were slavery at root, used to industrialize and make transportation routes, weaponry, etc. These labor camps were even used against innocent Jews and other â€Å"undesirables† during the Holocaust. Unbeknownst to the world for a time, even outright and brutal slavery was still used as exemplified by King Leopold of Belgium. Sexual slavery is another often overlooked form of slavery that had been carried out through past time periods like the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution but that was executed en masse by the Japanese during World War II. Still today, the pernicious act of slavery continues to be practiced, though concealed to the world, in underdeveloped countries of the world. Let us hope that mankind’s conscience continues to overshadow its greed and that slavery continues to be fought until it is completely wiped out the whole world over.

American productivity and quality center - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 3056 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? The accumulation and use of knowledge is the foundation of human evolution and growth since its very beginning; however, systematic study of managing knowledge as organizational strategic resources or more precisely Knowledge Management (KM) has not been commenced and proliferated until recently. The term Knowledge Management was first introduces in 1986 by the American Productivity and Quality Center (Baker, 2002), and then it has been the much-discussed topic throughout the past years (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Davenport and Prusak, 1998; and Alberto, 2000). However, the lack of theoretical understanding of knowledge and practically proven methods for efficient KM is surprising (Holsapple, 2003). Wiig (1999) defines KM as the systematic and explicit management of knowledge-related activities, practices, programs and policies within the enterprise, and there are multiple KM processes being identified: goal definition, identification, acquisition, development, distribution, application, maintenance and assessment of knowledge. Skyrme (1997) views KM is a purposeful and systematic management of vital knowledge along with its associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusing, using and exploiting that knowledge. Davenport and Prusak (1998), claim that KM is the process of capturing, distributing and effectively using knowledge. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "American productivity and quality center" essay for you Create order Drucker (1998) mentioned in his book, Managing in a Time of Great Change, that knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant and perhaps even the only source of comparative advantage, because knowledge is difficult to create and imitate (Peteraf, 1997; and Teece, 1998), and it has to be nurtured and managed (Maria and Marti, 2001). Senge (1990) has warned that many organizations are unable to transform and function as knowledge organization because of learning disabilities. With rapidly changes in technologies, the way information is created, stored, used and shared have made it more accessible and make the national borders are nearly meaningless in defining an organizations operating boundaries. Explicit knowledge is easily formalized and documented (Hippel, 1994; and Duffy, 2000), and can be captured or shared through information technology. Explicit knowledge are usually expressed in the form of data and numbers, and can be shared formally and systematically in the form of data, specifications, manuals, drawings, audio and video, tapes, computer programs, patents, and the like. In contrast, tacit knowledge is difficult to express and formalize, and is thus difficult to share as it includes individuals insights, intuitions and bunches. Tacit knowledge resides in the human and is evolves from peoples interactions, and requires skills and practices (Riggins and Rhee, 1999). KM is a complicated and multifaceted discipline. Scholars, practitioners or researchers may take different perspectives and depth in analyzing the subject. Similarly, KM practitioners may take various approaches to tackle the KM problem. Therefore, the concepts of knowledge and knowledge management are best defined by the people who use them in respective areas. In survey study on KM by Davenport, De Long and Beers (1998), 4 categories of KM processes are named by the participants: Creation of knowledge repositories. Improvement of knowledge access. Enhancement of knowledge environment. Management of knowledge as an asset. These categories of processes can be further divided into sub-tasks. There are various KM frameworks or models and the KM processes will vary a bit. However, the ultimate goal of KM is to provide systematic management framework and methodology to manage the knowledge resources effectively and to sustain competitive advantages. Nonaka and Konno (1998) articulated a well-known model for knowledge creation process The SECI (Socialization, Externalization, Combination, Internalization) model that describes the ways knowledge is generated, transferred and re-created within organization. In summary, the SECI model as shown in Figure 2.4 identifies the following Two forms of knowledge (tacit and explicit). A dynamic and interaction space (transfer). Three levels of aggregation (individual, group, context). Four knowledge-creating processes: socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. These four knowledge-creation processes are considered as the basic processes by which knowledge is created. Socialization: Individuals get together and share their experience about specific tasks, projects or processes in a free and open environment or atmosphere, and in such way the tacit knowledge of individuals is transformed into the tacit knowledge of groups. Externalization: Individuals talk about their experience on particular area or subject and as a consequence of collective reflection members come up with a new knowledge about the addressing area and thus the tacit knowledge is articulated and expressed into an explicit form. Combination: Many persons are working together and each contributes to a particular area of knowledge to make the whole set of knowledge a complete and comprehensive one through collaboration and sharing processes. In such case, the existing explicit knowledge of the individuals or teams is transformed into systematic knowledge, such as a set of specifications. Internalization: Explicit knowledge is transformed into tacit knowledge which is operational in nature. The individual acquires the specific skill and becoming proficiency in particular skill after repeating learning and doing. The importance of a shared or interactive space for knowledge creating is suggested by Alavari and Leidner (2001). They proposed the existence of a shared knowledge space for knowledge facilitation and the applicable of IT for knowledge exchange purpose is questionable without the existence of such space. Many IT applications, particular the groupware applications and portal applications aim to facilitate these knowledge processes namely creation, application, distribution and storage processes etc. by creating virtual collaboration space, chat room, bulletin board etc. to facilitate communications amongst team members. There are various KM models of frameworks that guide the practitioners to implement KM solution or conduct KM research work. These frameworks identify the key processes of KM as well as the various key influential factors or enablers for KM within the organization. These key processes and the critical influential factors interact dynamically within the framework and practitioners have to address these various parameters or processes while designing the KM systems to ensure effectiveness. Commonly identified enablers in KM models or frameworks include management, structure, culture, competence, motivation and reward, information technology, etc. Davenport and Prusak (1998) describe KM as involving organizational, human and technical issues, and technology is always an enabler for KM. The technologies will facilitate the various knowledge processes for the KM purpose, say application of knowledge, creation of knowledge, distribution of knowledge and storage of knowledge. There are three fundamental elements within any KM framework, namely people, process, and technology. The KM problem is tackled from the perspective of a process organization and IT as considered as one of the prime enablers for KM process and related KM activities realization. IT support communication, cooperation and coordination, and allows timely access to information and the sources of knowledge, and is always considered as prime enabler. Knowledge process should consist of the following essential knowledge process as illustrated in the Figure 2.5. These processes are create, capture, organize, access and use. Almost every IT elements would implement these functions within the operating system level or through resources management utilities or applications. Similarly, the human interactive processes are collaborate, find, mediate, facilitate or share, etc. which allow users to manipulate the information. Alavari, M. and Leidner, D. E., 2001. Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issueses. MIS Quaterly, 25(1), pp. 107-136. Alberto, C., 2000. How Does Knowledge Management Influence Innovation and Competitiveness?. Journal of Knowledge Management, 4(2), pp. 87-98. Baker, K., Ed. 2002. Where Will Knowledge Management Take Us? Knowledge Management and Organizational Memories. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Davenport, T. H., DeLong, D. W. and Beers, M. C., 1998. Successful Knowledge Management Projects. Sloan Management Review, 39(2), pp. 43-57. Davenport, T. H. and Prusak, L., 1998. Working Knowledge How Organizations Manage What They Know. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts. Drucker, P., 1998. Managing in a Time of Great Change. Peguin, Putnam, New York. Duffy, J., 2000. Knowledge Management: To Be Or Not To Be? Information Management Journal, 34(1), pp.64-67. Hippel, E., 1994. Sticky Information and The Locus of Problem Solving: Implications for Innovation. Management Science, 40(4), pp. 429-439. Holsapple, C. W., 2003. Handbook on Knowledge Management. Springer, Berlin. Maria, J. and Marti, V., 2001. Intellectual Capital Benchmarking System. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 2(2), pp.148-164. Nonaka, I. and Konno, N., 1998. The Concept of Ba. Building a Foundation of Knowledge Creation. California Management Review, 40(3), pp.40-45. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., 1995. The Knowledge-Creating Company. Oxford University Press, New York. Peteraf,M. A., 1997. The Cornerstone of Competitive Advantage: A resource-based View. Strategic Management Journal, 14(1993), pp.179-191. Riggins, F. and Rhee, H., 1999. Developing The Learning Network Using Extranets. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 4(1), pp. 65-83. Senge, P. M., 1990. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization. Doubleday, New York. Skyrme, D., 1997. Knowledge Management: Making Sense of an Oxymoron. Management Insight, 22. Teece, D. J., 1998. Capturing Value from Knowledge Assets. The New Economy, markets for Know-How, and Intangible Assets. California Management Review, 40(3), pp.55-79. Wiig, K. M., 1999. Introducing Knowledge Management Into The Enterprise. Knowledge Management Handbook, CRX Press, Boca Raton, pp.1-41. KM DLE Knowledge management is still a nascent organizational practice, so as of yet there is no agreed upon definition for it. Therefore, it is generally described as broadly as possible, such as the following specified by Prusak: KM is any process or practice of creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever it reside, to enhance learning and performance in organizations (Prusak, 1997). Knowledge does not simply exist it begins as raw facts and numbers. When put into context, this data becomes information, such as the content of documents or records in a database. This information becomes knowledge only after it is combined with experience and knowledge (Kidwell et al, 2000). The goal of KM in the organization is to allow businesses to improve how knowledge within an organization is used and shared. Learning institutions are in the business of knowledge, so it seems that learning institutions would benefit immensely from participating in KM activities. At the Knowledge Management in Education Summit in 2002, the participants agreed that KM practices provide important benefits for educators, including better work processes, improved curriculum, and above all else, positive student outcomes (Petrides, 2003). In an educational environment, part of understanding work practices involves understanding the social landscape. An effective KM tool designed for educators will attempt to address problems (where appropriate) within the social structure. It is easy to overlook the true beneficiaries of KM in education the students since implementing effective knowledge management tools in learning institutions relies heavily on positive teacher outcomes. It is import ant to stress to teachers that by participating in KM activities and using KM tools, teachers have the potential to improve both the curriculum and their effectiveness as educators, which ultimately benefits the students. Tools, regardless of their application, are imbued with knowledge (Baetier, 2000). Tools are designed to accomplish a task, and therefore the knowledge required to accomplish this task is captured within the tool through its design, such as the optimum handle length of a hammer (Baetier, 2000). Computer-based knowledge management tools carry this idea further in that they contain both implicit and explicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge is imbued within the tool by anyone who helped design the tool, while explicit knowledge is stored within the tool by the tools users (Baetier, 2000). Training and education activities are informed by various theories of learning. Constructivists view the learner as actively constructing new knowledge drawing upon pre-existing information and past experiences. As experience is gained and knowledge is built, learning opportunities produce new concepts or ideas (Maughan and Anderson, 2005). Traditional industry and learning institution curricula tend to treat content in an abstract or formal epistemological fashion independent of applications or work settings. KM in the support of task performance must be derived from the activity and involves identifying and capturing knowledge, indexing knowledge, and making knowledge available to users in flexible and useful ways (Siemens, 2004). Emerging KM practices are based partly on recent cognitive science understandings of human capabilities, such as conceptual blending and concepts for learning. KM should enhance individual, group and organizational learning, improve information circulation and even support innovation. It aims to capture and represent an organizations knowledge assets to facilitate knowledge access, sharing and reuse. The management of knowledge requires the ability to describe, organize and apply relationships. At the core of KM is the desire to identify and share knowledge that may not otherwise be found and shared, such as tacit knowledge residing in a single individual or an organizations grey literature usually accessible to only a few of its members. The theory behind knowledge management practice is that knowledge is not an end into itself. When information and knowledge flow can be captured, organized and made accessible for reuse, there exists the potential for subsequent creation of new knowledge (Williams, 2004). The most common used process of knowledge manipulation are capturing, storage and distribution. People use different types of repositories and specialists implement different technologies for organization of knowledge collectors, storage and delivery on demand. The purpose of the process is to improve qualification and to achieve better result. There is a strong relationship between knowledge and libraries. Material stored in libraries contains knowledge and to make this material available is the primary aim of DL. KM and DL could be aligned because they share a similar focus that is to enhance human knowledge. They are also looking for ways to categorize and store knowledge. DL has the potential to facilitate KM functions by enabling barrier-free access to materials and incorporating structured and unstructured information in a way that precipitates knowledge discovery (Rydberg-Cox, 2000). When evaluating research about DL for learning purposes and knowledge sharing across organizations, it is clear that KM and DL for learning purposes could be more aligned. Reasons for this integration include: DL for learning purposes and KM share a similar focus: how to enhance human knowledge and its use within organizations. Both DL for learning purposes and KM are looking for ways to categorize and share knowledge. There is a growing awareness of the fact that knowledge in an organization is distributed among its peoples minds and a variety of knowledge artefacts. Both content management and learning management systems are defined to store knowledge or learning/course components, often at an object level. Because of this, not only KM may fuse with learning management. In the vendor market, there is an increasing demand to content management system to grow closer to learning management system. The APQC defines content management as follows: a system to provide meaningful and timely information to end users by creating processes that identify, collect, categorize and refresh content using a common taxonomy across the organization. A content management system includes people, process, technology and the content itself. The increasing demand to compress the time to develop content for DL initiatives and for more targeted or personalized learning through the use and repurposing of standard based learning objects leads to a quicker unification of concepts and systems. Key issues are: Setting priorities for the investments in KM, learning management and content management, resulting in a holistic approach of intellectual capital management. Developing and managing individuals, competencies and communities. Describing, classifying and managing unstructured content. Creating and managing activities aimed at transferring knowledge to individuals (communities within an organization and putting knowledge to work). When learning management systems are designed to store course components on the object level, in a central repository, the learning management system grow closer to content management systems available. This opens the doors to single sourcing solutions, managing content throughout an organization. Sumner and Marlino (2004) have introduced the knowledge network model that can benefit educational DL in how libraries and library communities: Accommodate and support different types of participant interactions, both human and technology-mediated. Foster knowledge building and community development through specific forms of interactions. Enable participants to choose varying thresholds of entry and ongoing participation. Support participants to make use of captured interactions to inform their current activities. Affect participants views of themselves, their knowledge and skills, and their changing role in the community. Grow and sustain themselves. Predicting the future of a huge and fast-changing area like DLs is a difficult task. However, DLs will no doubt play a key role in creating a perfect information management environment or, as the new terminology has it, a KM environment. KM is the new buzzword, in corporate as well as government sectors. In KM terms, organizational knowledge may be divided into tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge and cultural knowledge (Choo, 1998a, 1998b, 2000). Implicit in this suggestion in the important idea that knowledge is not just an object or artefact, but also the outcome of people working together, sharing experiences and constructing meaning out of what they do. DLs can play a significant role in achieving this goal. Keeping these broad objectives in view, Rowley (1999) comments that KM is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets of an organization with a view to furthering the organizations objectives the knowledge assets to be managed include explicit, documented knowledge and tacit, subjective knowledge. DLs, with the major objective of making digital information local as well as remote and distributed servers accessible to everyu user in the community, can play a key role in KM in any organization. In future all organizations will need to have mechanisms for gaining easy access to local as well as global information. In order to create a knowledge-based environment, organizations should also build mechanisms for capturing information on local expertise. Choo, C. W., 1998a. Information Management For The Intelligent Organization: The Art of Scanning The environment, 2nd Ed. Information Today, Medford. Choo, C. W., 1998b. The Knowing Organization: How Organizations Use Information To Construct Meaning, Create Knowledge, and Make Decisions. Oxford University Press, New York. Choo, C. W., 2000. Working With Knowledge: How Information Professionals Help Organisation Manage What They Know. Library Management, 21(8), pp. 395-403. Rowley, J., 1999. What Is Knowledge Management? Library Management, 20(8), pp. 416-420. 3. Prusak, L., 1997. Knowledge in Organizations. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. 4. Kidwell, J.J., Linde, V., Karen, M., Johnson and Sandra, L., 2000. Applying Corporate Knowledge Management Practices in Higher Education. Educause Quarterly, 4. 6. Petrides, L.A., Nodine, and Thad, R., 2003. Knowledge Management in Education: Defining the Landscape. 17. Baetjer, H.J., 2000. Capital as Embodied Knowledge: Some Implications for the Theory of Economic Growth. Review of Austrian Economics, 13, pp. 147-174. Maughan, G.R. and Anderson, T., 2005. Linking TQM culture to traditional learning theories. Journal of Industrial Technology, 21(4), pp. 2-7. Siemens, G., October 2004. Categories of eLearning. Available From: https://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/elearningcategories.htm [Accessed 16 July 2009].