12(b)-1 Fee
Fee assessed shareholders by the mutual fund for some of its promotional expenses. A 12b-1 fee must be specifically registered as such with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the fact that such charges are levied must be disclosed.

50 Day Avg. Daily Volume
This is the average share volume for the past 50 trading days. This field allows you to compare today's trading to the average daily volume.

Actual EPS, CPS, or DPS
Reported annual Earnings Per Share (EPS -Trailing 12 months), cash flow (CPS) or Dividends Per Share (DPS) for a company for the fiscal year indicated. For companies which report on a quarterly basis, this information will contain the sum of the actual earnings, cash flow or dividends for the previous four quarters. For companies that report semi-annually, the field will contain the sum of the previous two semi-annual actuals.

After Hours Best Ask
The price at which someone who owns a security offers to sell a NASDAQ security during the current day’s After Hours market; also known as the asked price. Investors may trade in the After Hours Market (4:00-6:30 p.m. ET for NASDAQ stocks and 4:00-8:00 p.m. ET for NYSE and Amex stocks). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result, this session may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders. NASD Rule 3350 (the Short Sale Rule) will initially not apply during 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET.

After Hours Best Bid
The price a prospective buyer is prepared to pay at a particular time for trading a NASDAQ security during the current day’s After Hours market. Investors may trade in the After Hours Market (4:00-6:30 p.m. ET for NASDAQ stocks and 4:00-8:00 p.m. ET for NYSE and Amex stocks) on The NASDAQ Stock Market. Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result, this session may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders.

After Hours High
The after hours high represents the highest price a person purchased this security during the current day’s After Hours trading session. Investors may trade in After Hours Market (4:00-6:30 p.m. ET for NASDAQ stocks and 4:00-8:00 p.m. ET for NYSE and Amex stocks). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders.

After Hours Last Sale
An electronic entry by an NASD Member firm representing the price involved in a transaction of a NASDAQ security during the current day’s After Hours session. The trade report must be submitted to NASDAQ within 90 seconds after the execution of the trade. Investors may trade in the After Hours Market (4:00-6:30 p.m. ET for NASDAQ stocks and 4:00-8:00 p.m. ET for NYSE and Amex stocks). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders.

After Hours Low
The after hours low represents the lowest price a person purchased this security during the After Hours trading session. Investors may trade in the After Hours Market (4:00-6:30 p.m. ET for NASDAQ stocks and 4:00-8:00 p.m. ET for NYSE and Amex stocks). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders.

After Hours Volume
An electronic entry by an NASD Member firm representing the number of shares involved in a transaction of a NASDAQ security during the current day’s After Hours session. The trade report must be submitted to NASDAQ within 90 seconds after the execution of the trade. Investors may trade in After Hours Market (4:00-6:30 p.m. ET for NASDAQ stocks and 4:00-8:00 p.m. ET for NYSE and Amex stocks). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders. Please note that the volume on the After-Hours Most Active page contains consolidated volume.

After Hours % Change
After Hours Percent change represents the percent increase/decrease between the last sale and the Market Close.

Weighted Alpha
The Alpha is a measure of how much a stock has risen or fallen over a one-year period. The original research was restricted to large cap stocks, so the corresponding rise in the S&P 500 index was subtracted; however, as there are a number of interesting stocks that do not fit well into any category, and others that fit into more than one category, the results are presented without subtracting any index.
Barchart.com takes this Alpha (measure of how much a stock has changed in the one-year period) and weights this, assigning more weight to recent activity, and less (0.5 factor) to activity at the beginning of the period. Thus the weighted alpha is a measure of one year growth with an emphasis on the most recent price activity.
A stock whose price has risen over the one-year period will have a positive Weighted Alpha. A stock whose price has not changed in the period will have a small Weighted Alpha and a stock whose price has dropped over the period will have a negative Weighted Alpha.
N.B. The Weighted Alpha is limited in the amount it may change from one day to the next, thus eliminating large price jumps from the calculation .

American Depositary Receipt (ADR)
A security, created by a U.S. bank, that evidences ownership to a specified number of shares of a foreign security held in a depositary in the issuing company's country of domicile. The certificate, transfer, and settlement practices for ADRs are identical to those for U.S. securities. U.S. investors often prefer ADRs to direct purchase of foreign shares because of the ready availability of price information, lower transaction costs, and timely dividend distribution.

American Stock Exchange (AMEX)
The second-oldest U.S. stock exchange, located on Wall Street in New York City. Started as an alternative to the NYSE, the AMEX originating on the curb outside the NYSE, where brokers traded stocks that failed to meet the Big Board's listing requirements. Considerably smaller in market capitalization and trading volume than NASDAQ and the NYSE, the AMEX conducts trading through a centralized specialist system and is home primarily to small and medium-sized companies

AMEX Composite - XAX
The AMEX Composite Index - (XAX) the American Stock Exchange introduced a new AMEX Composite Index with a new ticker symbol, XAX, on January 2, 1997. The XAX is a market capitalization-weighted, price appreciation index, and replaces the AMEX Market Value Index (XAM) which, since its inception, has been calculated on a "total return basis" to include the reinvestment of dividends paid by AMEX companies. The new AMEX Composite Index is more comparable with other major indexes, which reflect only the price appreciation of their respective components.

Analyst
A person with expertise in evaluating financial investments; he or she performs investment research and makes recommendations to institutional and retail investors to buy, sell, or hold; most analysts specialize in a single industry or business sector.

International Analyst Coverage
NASDAQ.com displays US research coverage only; in many cases, non-US related research coverage can be accessed on the homepage of respective companies.

Announcement Date
The date on which the company first made news of the split public.

Annualized Dividend
This field is a calculated value and uses the last dividend paid multiplied by the frequency. It is the amount of a dividend paid to shareholders over four quarters. A quarterly dividend is therefore multiplied by four to determine its annualized value. A monthly dividend is multiplied by twelve. A one-time dividend is considered fully-annualized at its base value. One-time dividends are not multiplied.

Ask
The price at which someone who owns a security offers to sell it; also known as the asked price. (See also "Best Ask".)

Assets
Any possessions that has value in an exchange.

Average Daily Share Volume
The number of shares traded per day, averaged over a period of time, usually one year.

Average Maturity
The average time to maturity of securities held by a mutual fund. Changes in interest rates have greater impact on funds with longer average life.

Beginning Net Asset Value
The market value of a fund share on a predetermined start date.

Best Ask
The price at which someone who owns a security offers to sell it; also known as the asked price. Please note that the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange do not provide Ask information on a delayed basis.

Best Bid
The price a prospective buyer is prepared to pay at a particular time for trading a unit of a given security. Please note that the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange do not provide Bid information on a delayed basis.

Beta
A measure of the volatility of a stock relative to the overall market. A beta of less than one indicates lower risk than the market; a beta of more than one indicates higher risk than the market. NASDAQ.com uses the S&P 500 as the underlying index to measure the overall market for beta.

Bid
The price a prospective buyer is prepared to pay at a particular time for trading a unit of a given security.

Capital Gains Distribution
Payments to mutual fund shareholders of profits from the sale of securities in a fund's portfolio. Capital gains distributions (if any) are usually made annually.

Common Stocks
The basic form of equity ownership in a corporation.

Consensus Rating
The average of analysts recommendations for a single entity. As many brokers have different ratings systems, their recommendations must be standardized so that a consensus can be calculated. The I/B/E/S ratings are calculated using a standard set of recommendations, maintained by I/B/E/S, each with an assigned numeric value:

1. Strong Buy
2. Buy
3. Hold
4. Underperform
5. Sell

Each recommendation received from the analysts is mapped to one of the I/B/E/S standard ratings. Assigning a numeric value to the broker text enables I/B/E/S to calculate a consensus recommendation. This consensus recommendation appears as the mean (average) of the assigned values.

Date of Record
The date on which a shareholder must officially own shares in order to be entitled to a dividend.

Days to Cover
Calculated as the aggregate short interest for the month divided by the average daily share volume traded for the period between short interest settlement dates. If days to cover is between 0 and 1, it is rounded up to 1 on NASDAQ.com

Debt to Equity Ratio
Long-term debt divided by shareholders' equity, showing relationship between long-term funds provided by creditors and funds provided by shareholders; high ratio may indicate high risk, low ratio may indicate low risk.

Deleted
A security is no longer included in The NASDAQ Stock Market.

Distribution Date
Date on which the payout of realized capital gains on securities in the fund portfolio occurred.

Diversification
The acquisition of a group of assets in which returns on the assets are not directly related over time. Proper investment diversification is intended to reduce the risk inherent in particular securities. An investor seeking diversification for a securities portfolio would purchase securities of firms that are not similarly affected by the same variables. For example, an investor would not want to combine large investment positions in airlines, trucking and automobile manufacturing because each industry is significantly affected by oil prices and interest rates.

Dividend
Distribution of earnings to shareholders, prorated by the class of security and paid in the form of money, stock, scrip, or, rarely, company products or property. The amount is decided by the Board of Directors and is usually paid quarterly. Mutual fund dividends are paid out of income, usually on a quarterly basis from the fund's investments.

Dow Jones Industrial Average - DJIA
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index - (DJIA) is a price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue chip stocks, primarily industrials but including American Express Co. and American Telephone and Telegraph Co. Prepared and published by Dow Jones & co., it is the oldest and most widely quoted of all the market indicators. The components, which change from time to time, represent between 15% and 20% of the market value of NYSE stocks. The DJIA is calculated by adding the closing prices of the component stocks and using a divisor that is adjusted for splits and stock dividends equal to 10% or more of the market value of an issue as well as substitutions and mergers. The average is quoted in points, not in dollars.

Down on Unusual Volume
Refers to a decrease in stock price for stocks exhibiting unusual volume.

Dual Listed
For the purpose of this website - A company which lists its securities on both The NASDAQ Stock Market and the New York Stock Exchange.

EBITDA
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

Effective Annualized Seven-Day Yield
Yield for 7 day period including the day reported, calculated by adding 1 to the base period return used in calculating the standard 7 day yield raising the total to the power of 365 divided by 7 and subtracting 1 (NOTE: To be reported on Wednesday only).

Earnings Per Share (EPS)
The EPS listed on our infoquote and Summary Quote page is "12-mos Rolling". EPS represents the portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. Net income (reported or estimated) for a period of time is divided by the total number of shares outstanding (TSO) during that period; See growth rate measures for EPS.

Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval EDGAR
An electronic system implemented by the SEC that is used by companies to transmit all documents required to be filed with the SEC in relation to corporate offerings and ongoing disclosure obligations. EDGAR became fully operational mid-1995.

Ending Net Asset Value
The market value of a fund share on a predetermined end date.

Ex-dividend
Interval between the announcement and the payment of the next dividend.

Ex-dividend Date
The date on or after which a security begins trading without the dividend (cash or stock) included in the contract price.

Expense Ratio
The proportion of assets of a mutual fund required to pay annual operating expenses and management fees. If a fund charges an annual fee of 50c per $100 of net assets, the expense ratio will be .5%. The expense ratio is independent of any sales fees.

Family of Funds
Group of mutual funds managed by the same investment management company. Each fund typically has a different objective; one may be a growth-oriented stock fund, whereas another may be a bond fund or money market fund. Shareholders in one of the funds can usually switch their money into any of the family's other funds, sometimes at no charge. Family of funds with no sales charges are called no load families. Those with sales charges are called load families.

Fiscal Periods
Because not all companies have the same fiscal year end, we, in cooperation with I/B/E/S, use FY1, FY2, etc., to identify unique fiscal periods for forecast data. For comparison purposes, I/B/E/S rounds off the quarter end dates to the nearest month end.

The following is a description of how this labeling works:

FY = fiscal year
Q = quarter
SAN = semiannual

The most recently reported earnings number is denoted with a zero (0). Then, the first estimate year is denoted with a one (1), the year after that, a two (2), and so on. So, as an example, if FY0 corresponds to the December 96 year end reported, then FY1 data refers to estimates for December 97, FY2 refers to estimates for the December 98 year end, and so on. Use the same conventions for interim periods (quarter and semiannual).

Footnotes:
Footnote A
To be used if the fund's return to shareholders may differ due to capital gains or losses. This footnote applied to money market funds only.
Footnote B
To be used if there are any sales charges or account charges which impact yield. This footnote applies to money market funds only.
Footnote C
Return of Capital information is being submitted for the year in the Capital Gains Distribution field.
Footnote D
To be used on any day that a mutual fund's net asset value is reduced by a capital gains distribution.
Footnote F
To be used by any type of fund that reports quotations as of the day prior to the day of reporting.
Footnote G
To be used if the fund's capital gains figure includes short term gains.
Footnote N
To be used by mutual funds when the fund does not have a sales load, i.e. there is no front-end and no contingent deferred sales load.
Footnote P
To be used by mutual funds if the fund has adopted a rule 12(b)1 distribution plan under which a specific charge is made against the net assets of the fund.
Footnote R
To be used by mutual funds with redemption fees, contingent deferred sales charges, or other charges deducted from net asset value upon redemption (other than charges for special services such as wire transfer).
Footnote S
To be used on the ex-date for stock splits or stock dividends.
Footnote T
To be used if the fund began reporting prices to NASDAQ during the current year (in this case 1999).
Footnote X
To be used by mutual funds on any day a fund goes ex-dividend.

Foreign
A non U.S. company with securities trading on The NASDAQ Stock Market.

Forward P/E (1yr)
A widely used stock evaluation measure. For a security, the Price/Earnings Ratio is given by dividing the Last Sale Price by the Average EPS (Earnings Per Share) Estimate for the specified fiscal time period. The forward P/E refers to the value for the next full year.

Gold - GOX
The CBOE Gold Index - (GOX) is an equal-dollar-weighted index composed of 10 companies involved primarily in gold mining and production. The index is re-balanced after the close of business on expiration Friday on the March quarterly cycle.

Growth Rate Measures for EPS
-Current year/last year % growth shows the percent change between the current year's Forecasted mean EPS estimate and the last reported actual EPS
-Next year/current year % growth shows the percent change between next year's forecasted mean EPS estimate and the current year's forecasted mean estimate
-Historical EPS growth % (historical 5 year growth)shows the average annual EPS growth for the company over the past five years
-5 year growth median is the median annual growth forecast over the next five years
-12 Month Forward % Growth is the projected growth in the company's EPS over the next 12 months (PEG Ratio)

Held
A situation where a security is temporarily not available for trading (e.g. Market Makers are not allowed to display quotes).

Inside Market
The highest bid and the lowest offer prices among all competing Market Makers in a NASDAQ security, i.e., the best bid and offer prices.

IPO Date
The date that the security started publicly trading.

IPV
Ordinarily calculated during the trading day, based upon the current market value of the securities in a Creation Unit together with an applicable cash amount on a given business day, and represented on a per ETF-share basis, as described in its prospectus

Last Sale Reporting
An electronic entry by NASD Members to The NASDAQ Stock Market of the price and the number of shares involved in a transaction in a NASDAQ security. The trade reported must be submitted to NASDAQ with 90 seconds of the execution of the trade.

Limit Order
A Limit Order is an order to buy or sell a stock at a customer specified price.

Load Fund
Mutual Fund that is sold for a sales charge by a brokerage firm or other sales representative. Such funds may be stock, bond or commodity funds, with conservative or aggressive objectives.

Long Term Gain
A gain on the sale of a capital asset where the holding period was twelve months or more and the profit was subject to the long term capital gains tax.

Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A)
A key area looked at by analysts; an interpretive section of the prospectus and of the annual report, frequently called the Financial Review.

Margin account
A brokerage account that permits an investor to purchase securities on credit and to borrow on securities already in the account. Buying on credit and borrowing are subject to standards established by the Federal Reserve and by the firm carrying the account. Interest is charged on any borrowed funds only for the period of time the loan is outstanding.

Market Category
The market it trades on, either NASDAQ Global Select Market (NGS), NASDAQ Global Market (NGM), or NASDAQ Capital Market (NCM).

Market Close
An electronic entry by NASD Members to The NASDAQ Stock Market of the regular trading day's last reported trade. Investors may trade during the regular trading session from 9:30am - 4:00pm. Trades must be submitted to NASDAQ within 90 seconds of the execution of the trade by an NASD Member Firm.

Market Close Date
Date on which the closing Net Asset Value (NAV) was last calculated.

Market Makers
The NASD member firms that use their own capital, research, retail and/or systems resources to represent a stock and compete with each other to buy and sell the stocks they represent. There are over 500 member firms that act as NASDAQ Market Makers. One of the major differences between The NASDAQ Stock Market and other major markets in the U.S. is NASDAQ's structure of competing Market Makers. Each Market Maker competes for customer order flow by displaying buy and sell quotations for a guaranteed number of shares. Once an order is received, the Market Maker will immediately purchase for or sell from its own inventory, or seek the other side of the trade until it is executed, often in a matter of seconds.

Market Maker Spread
The difference between the price at which a Market Maker is willing to buy a security and the price at which the firm is willing to sell it i.e., the difference between a Market Maker's bid and ask for a given security. Since each Market Maker positions itself to either buy or sell inventory at any given time, each individual Market Maker spread is not indicative of the market as a whole. (See also "Inside Market".)

Market Order
A Market Order is an order to buy or sell a stock at the market's current best displayed price.

Market Surveillance
The department responsible for investigating and preventing abusive, manipulative, or illegal trading practices on The NASDAQ Stock Market. Considerable resources are devoted to surveilling The NASDAQ Stock Market. A vast array of sophisticated automated systems reviews each trade and price quotation on an on-line, real-time basis. Off-line computer-based analyses are conducted to evaluate trading patterns on a monthly, weekly and daily basis.
Whenever any of these automated systems indicate unusual price or volume in a stock, NASDAQ Market Surveillance analysts determine if this was the result of legitimate market forces or perhaps a violation of rules. Among other things, analysts review press releases, review historical trading activity, interview brokers, Market Makers, and NASDAQ-listed company officials. Market Surveillance continues its inquiries until unusual movements are adequately explained.
If legitimate market forces were at work the case is closed without action. If it appears rule violations have occurred, a disciplinary action is initiated. Where corporate insiders or members of the investing public are involved in a potential violation, the case will be referred to the SEC.

Market Value
For NASDAQ-listed securities, the price per share of the specified security multiplied by the number of shares outstanding for the specified security. The shares outstanding number used in this market value calculation is the number used by NASDAQ for index calculation and may not include all shares globally issued and outstanding.

Maturity Date
The date on which the principal amount of a bond is to be paid in full.

Material News
News released by a NASDAQ company that might reasonably be expected to affect the value of a company's securities or influence investors decisions. Material news includes information regarding corporate events of an unusual and non-recurring nature, news of tender offers, unusually good or bad earnings reports, and a stock split or stock dividend. (See also "Trading Halt".)

Mean
The mathematical average of a range of numbers (calculated by dividing the sum total of all the items in the range by the total number of items in the range).

Mean Recommendation
This number relates to the average recommendation for the stock. The values are from 1 to 5. A five indicates a sell, and a one indicates a strong buy.

Median
The middle number in a defined distribution; when looking at estimates, median refers to the estimate above and below which lie an equal number of estimates for the period indicated.

Money Market Fund
Open-ended mutual fund that invests in commercial paper, banker's acceptances, repurchase agreements, government securities, certificates of deposit, and other highly liquid and safe securities, and pays money market rates of interest. The fund's net asset value remains a constant $1 a share, only the interest rate goes up or down.

Most Active
Most active NASDAQ Global Select Market or NASDAQ Global Market stocks.

Mutual Fund
Fund operated by an investment company that raises money from shareholders and invests it in stocks, bonds, options, commodities or money market securities.

NASDAQ Composite Index -
The NASDAQ Composite Index measures all NASDAQ domestic and non-U.S. based common stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market. The Index is market-value weighted. This means that each company's security affects the Index in proportion to it's market value. The market value, the last sale price multiplied by total shares outstanding, is calculated throughout the trading day, and is related to the total value of the Index.
Today the NASDAQ Composite includes over 5,000 companies, more than most other stock market indexes. Because it is so broad-based, the Composite is one of the most widely followed and quoted major market indexes.

NASDAQ International Ltd.
A subsidiary of the NASD headquartered in London, England. Its mission is to support NASD members in London, serve as a liaison to international companies seeking to list securities on NASDAQ, encourage foreign institutional participation in NASDAQ stocks, and to heighten the international image of the NASD and its markets.

NASDAQ International Service
An extension to The NASDAQ Stock Market's trading systems that allows early morning trading from 3:30 to 9:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time on each U.S. trading day. This NASDAQ service enables participants to monitor trades during London market hours. NASD members are eligible to participate in this session through their U.S. trading facilities or through those of an approved U.K. affiliate.

NASDAQ Global Select Market Companies
The NASDAQ Global Select Market has the highest initial listing standards in the world. Approximately 1,200 companies are listed on the Global Select, having met these stringent financial and liquidity requirements for initial listing and continue to meet stringent financial, liquidity and corporate governance requirements. For more information on the requirements to be included on The NASDAQ Global Select Market, please see Listing Standards & Fees.

NASDAQ Global Market Companies
The NASDAQ Global Market consists of over 1,450 companies that have applied for listing, having met and continued to meet stringent financial and liquidity requirements and agreed to meet specific corporate governance standards. Formerly called The NASDAQ National Market, this market was renamed in 2006 to reflect the global leadership and international reach of this market and the companies whose securities are listed here. For more information on the requirements to be included on The NASDAQ Global Market, please see Listing Standards & Fees.

NASDAQ Close (NOCP)
The NASDAQ® Official Closing Price (NOCP) is a process for identifying the NASDAQ market-specific closing price for NASDAQ-listed issues. The NOCP replaces the NASDAQ market-specific closing price that was based solely on the last reported NASDAQ trade. Subject to review by NASDAQ MarketWatch, the NOCP will equal the normalized price of the last trade reported to NASDAQ’s proprietary trade reporting system—Automated Confirmation Transaction ServiceSM (ACTSM—with a last sale eligible sale condition modifier as of 4:00:02 p.m., US Eastern Time. "Normalizing" the NOCP means it will be adjusted to the nearest prevailing inside quote whenever the last sale is reported away from the inside market. Market participants, data distributors and investors will be provided with the NOCP for all NASDAQ Global Select MarketSM, NASDAQ Global MarketSM and NASDAQ Capital MarketSM securities.

Date of NOCP
This field refers to the date the NOCP was disseminated for a given stock. It is possible that the date will not be from the prior day; this indicates that the stock didn't trade on NASDAQ on the prior day. The NOCP is updated only when the stock is traded on NASDAQ.

NASDAQ Official Open Price
NASDAQ Official Opening Price: This process identifies the NASDAQ-specific opening prices for NASDAQ-listed issues.

Date of the NASDAQ Official Open Price
This field refers to the date the NASDAQ Official Open Price was disseminated for a given stock. It is possible that the date will not be from the current trading day; this indicates that the stock didn't trade on NASDAQ during the current trading day. The NASDAQ Official Open Price is updated only when the stock is traded on NASDAQ.

NASDAQ Capital Market Companies
The NASDAQ Capital Market consists of over 550 companies that have applied for listing, having met and continued to meet financial and liquidity listing requirements and agreed to meet specific corporate governance standards. This market, previously called The NASDAQ SmallCap Market, was renamed in 2005 to reflect the core purpose of this market, which is capital raising. For more information, on the requirements to be included on The NASDAQ Capital Market please see Listing Standards & Fees.

NASDAQ-100 Index -
The NASDAQ-100 Index includes 100 of the largest non-financial domestic companies listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market or the NASDAQ Global Market tiers of The NASDAQ Stock Market. Launched in January 1985, each security in the Index is proportionately represented by its market capitalization in relation to the total market value of the Index.
The Index reflects NASDAQ's largest growth companies across major industry groups. All index components have a minimum market capitalization of $500 million, and an average daily trading volume of at least 100,000 shares.
The number of securities in the NASDAQ-100 index makes it an effective vehicle for arbitrageurs and securities traders. In October 1993, the NASDAQ-100 Index began trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. On April 10, 1996 the Chicago Mercantile Exchange began trading futures and futures options on the NASDAQ-100 Index.

National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD)
The self-regulatory organization of the securities industry responsible for the regulation of The Nasdaq Stock Market and the over-the-counter markets. The NASD operates under the authority granted it by the 1938 Maloney Act Amendment to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Net Asset Value (NAV)
The market value of a fund share, synonymous with a bid price. In the case of no-load funs, the NAV, market price, and offering price are all the same figure, which the public pays to buy shares; load fund market or offer prices are quoted after adding the sales charge to the net asset value. NAV is calculated by most funds after the close of the exchanges each day by taking the closing market value of all securities owned plus all other assets such as cash, subtracting all liabilities, then dividing the result (total net assets) by the total number of shares outstanding. The number of shares outstanding can vary each day depending on the number of purchases and redemptions.

Net Change
The difference between today's last trade and the previous day's last trade. The difference between today's closing Net Asset Value (NAV) and the previous day's closing Net Asset Value (NAV).

Net Income
Income after all expenses and taxes have been deducted, and used in calculating a variety of profitability and stock performance measures.

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
The oldest U.S. stock exchange, located on Wall Street in New York City. Tracing its origins to 1792, the NYSE is one of the few remaining financial markets to use a physical trading floor to conduct trading. Representatives of buyers and sellers, know a specialists, meet and shout out prices in an "open outcry system." Often referred to as the Big Board.

Number of Estimates (# of Est)
Number of analysts included in the Mean EPS forecast.

NYSE Composite Index - NYSE
The NYSE Composite Index - (NYSE) is a market value-weighted index which relates all NYSE stocks to an aggregate market value as of Dec. 31, 1965, adjusted for capitalization changes. The base value of the index is $50 and point changes are expressed in dollars and cents.

No Load Fund
Mutual Fund offered by an open end investment company that imposes no sales charge (load) on its shareholders. Investors buy shares in no-load funds directly from the fund companies, rather than through a broker as is done in load funds. Many no-load fund families allow switching of assets between stock, bond, and money market funds. The listing of the price of a no-load fund in the newspaper is accompanied by the designation NL. The net asset value, market price and offer prices of this type of fund are exactly the same, since there is no sales charge.

No Quote (NQ)
No Market Makers making an inside market at this time.

Offer Price
The price at which the shares were originally offered to the public.

Open Order
An order to buy or sell a security that remains in effect until it is either canceled by the customer or executed.

OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB)
The OTCBB is a regulated quotation service that displays real-time quotes, last-sale prices, and volume information in over-the-counter (OTC) equity securities. An OTC equity security generally is any equity that is not listed or traded on NASDAQ or a national securities exchange. Approved by the SEC in 1997, OTCBB securities include national, regional, and foreign equity issues, warrants, units, American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), and Direct Participation Programs (DPPs).

Other OTC
A security that is neither listed on NASDAQ or any stock exchange, nor quoted on the OTCBB; bids and offers are not centrally collected

Pacific Exchange (PSE)
Located in San Francisco, and started in 1882. The exchange trades equities and options.

P/B Ratio (Price/Book Ratio)
A stock analysis statistic in which the price of a stock is divided by the reported book value (as of the date specified) of the issuing firm.

P/C Ratio (Price/Cash Flow Ratio)
A financial ratio that compares stock price with cash flow from operations per outstanding shares.

P/E Ratio (Price/Earnings Ratio)
A stock analysis statistic in which the current price of a stock (today's last sale price) is divided by the reported actual (or sometimes projected, which would be forecast) earnings per share of the issuing firm; it is also called the "multiple".

P/S Ratio (Price/Sales Ratio)
A financial ratio that compares stock price with sales per share (or market value with total revenue).

Payment Date
The date on which a dividend or split will be paid to stockholders by the issuers' paying agents. The payable date is the date on which one must own the shares (at the close of the session) in order to receive the split.

Penalty Bid
A Syndicate Penalty Bid can be displayed on the NASDAQ System during the period of a registered public offering of a security. Such a bid may be entered by the managing underwriter or a member of the underwriting group acting on its behalf, and is intended to facilitate the offering by stabilizing the price of the security during the distribution period. This activity is permissible under SEC Rule 10b-7.

Pre-Market High
The Pre-Market high represents the highest price a person purchased this security during the Pre-Market session. Investors may trade in the Pre-Market (8:00-9:30 a.m. ET). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders.

Pre-Market Last Sale
An electronic entry by an NASD Member firm representing the price involved in a transaction of a NASDAQ security during the Pre-Market session. The trade report must be submitted to NASDAQ within 90 seconds after the execution of the trade. Investors may trade in the Pre-Market (8:00-9:30 a.m. ET). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders.

Pre-Market Low
The Pre-Market low represents the lowest price a person purchased this security during the Pre-Market session. Investors may trade in the Pre-Market (8:00-9:30 a.m. ET). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders.

Pre-Market % Change
Pre-Market Percent change represents the percent increase/decrease between the last sale and the Market Close. See Market Close.

Pre-Market Volume
An electronic entry by an NASD Member firm representing the number of shares involved in a transaction of a NASDAQ security during the Pre-Market. The trade report must be submitted to NASDAQ within 90 seconds after the execution of the trade. Investors may trade in Pre-Market (8:00-9:30 a.m. ET). Participation by Market Makers and ECNs is strictly voluntary and as a result may offer less liquidity and inferior prices. Stock prices may also move more quickly in this environment. Investors who anticipate trading during these times are strongly advised to use limit orders.

Pre-Syndicate Bid
A Pre-Syndicate Bid can be entered in the NASDAQ System to stabilize the price of a NASDAQ security prior to the effective date of a registered secondary offering. This activity is permissible under SEC Rule 10b-7.

Previous Day's Close
The previous trading day's last reported trade. The Previous Day's Close on the NASDAQ Web site is updated at 3:30 A.M.

Previous NAV
The Net Asset Value (NAV) from previous trading day. The Previous NAV on the NASDAQ Web site is updated at 4:30 P.M.

Principal Orders
Refers to activity by a broker/dealer when buying or selling for its own account and risk.

Quarterly Report (10 Q)
A report, which public companies are required to file quarterly with the SEC, that provides unaudited financial information and other selected material.

Real-time Trade Reporting
A requirement imposed on Market Makers (and in some instances, non-Market Makers) to report each trade immediately after completion of the transaction. Stocks traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market are subject to real-time trade reporting within 90 seconds of execution.

Retained Earnings
Net profits kept to accumulate in a business after dividends are paid.

Return of Capital
A distribution of cash resulting from depreciation tax savings, the sale of a capital asset or of securities in a portfolio, or any other transaction unrelated to retained earnings.

Return on Equity
(net income divided by shareholders' equity) a measure of the net income that a firm is able to earn as a percent of stockholders' investment.

Return on Total Assets
(net income divided by total net assets) a measure of the net income that a firm's management is able to earn with the firm's total assets.

Sales Load
The sales fee that the buyer pays in order to acquire an asset. The fee varies according to the type of asset and the way it is sold. Many mutual funds impose a sales charge. As a result of the load, only a portion of the investor’s funds go into the investment itself.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The federal agency created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to administer that act and the Securities Act of 1933. The statutes administered by the SEC are designed to promote full public disclosure and protect the investing public against fraudulent and manipulative practices in the securities markets. Generally, most issues of securities offered in interstate commerce or through the mails must be registered with the SEC.

Settlement Date
The date specified for delivery of securities between securities firms, usually three business days after the execution of an order.

Seven-Day Yield
Yield for seven day period including the day reported.

Shares Outstanding
For NASDAQ-listed securities, the number of issued and outstanding shares for the specified security as used by NASDAQ in the calculation of NASDAQ index values. The number of total shares outstanding used by NASDAQ for index calculation reflects the value most recently reported for the security by the issuing corporation, via required SEC filings or other communication with NASDAQ, as adjusted for any corporate actions such as stock dividends. However, use and display of a newly reported value may be briefly delayed pending review for accuracy and/or the facilitation of the management of the indices. Also, values for certain non-U.S. securities may not include all shares globally issued and outstanding.

The SO for OTCBB companies can be found on OTCBB.com, under the "Company Profile" section. Please click the link "example".

Short Interest
The total number of shares of a security that have been sold short by customers and securities firms that have not been repurchased to settle short positions in the market.(See also Short Selling,Days to Cover, Settlement Date,and Average Daily Share Volume.)

Short Selling
Short selling is the selling of a security that the seller does not own, or any sale that is completed by the delivery of a security borrowed by the seller. Short selling is a legitimate trading strategy. Short sellers assume the risk that they will be able to buy the stock at a more favorable price than the price at which they sold short.
The NASDAQ Short Sale Rule prohibits NASD members from selling a NASDAQ National Market stock at or below the inside best bid when that price is lower than the previous inside best bid in that stock.

Short Term Gain
The profit realized from the sale of securities or other capital assets held twelve months or less.

SIC Code
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code. A numbering system established by the Office of Management and Budget that identifies companies by industry. It is used to promote the comparability of economic statistics from various facets of the U.S. economy.

Spread
The spread for a company's stock is influenced by a number of factors, including:
-Supply or "float" - the total number of shares outstanding available to trade.
-Demand or interest in a stock.
-Total trading activity in the stock.

Standard and Poor’s 500 - $SPX
The S&P 500 index - ($SPX), more formally known as the S&P 500 Composite Stock Price Index, is a european-style, capitalization-weighted index (shares outstanding multiplied by stock price) of 500 stocks that are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Global Select Market or NASDAQ Global Market. The advantage of "cap-weighting" is that each company's influence on index performance is directly proportional to its relative market value. It is this characteristic that makes the S&P 500 such a valuable tool for measuring the performance of actual portfolios.

Stock Dividend
Payment of a corporate dividend in the form of stock rather than cash. The stock dividend may be additional shares in the company, or it may be shares in a subsidiary being spun off to shareholders. Stock dividends are often used to conserve cash needed to operate the business. Unlike a cash dividend, stock dividend are not taxed until sold.

Stock Index
A securities price indicator such as the NASDAQ-100, Standard & Poor's or Dow Jones series created to measure the relative value of the market.

Stock Symbol
A unique four- or five-letter symbol assigned to a NASDAQ security. If a fifth letter appears, it identifies the issue as other than a single issue of common stock or capital stock. A list of fifth-letter identifiers and a description of what each represents follows:
A - Class A
B - Class B
C - Issuer qualifications exceptions*
D - New
E - Delinquent in required filings with the SEC
F - Foreign
G - First convertible bond
H - Second convertible bond, same company
I - Third convertible bond, same company
J - Voting
K - Nonvoting
L - Miscellaneous situations, such as depositary receipts, stubs, additional warrants, and units
M - Fourth preferred, same company
N - Third preferred, same company
O - Second preferred, same company
P - First preferred, same company
Q - Bankruptcy Proceedings
R - Rights
S - Shares of beneficial interest
T - With warrants or with rights
U - Units
V - When-issued and when distributed
W - Warrants
Y- ADR (American Depositary Receipt)
Z - Miscellaneous situations such as depositary receipts, stubs, additional warrants, and units.
* The letter "C" as a fifth character in a security symbol, indicates that the issuer has been granted a continuance in NASDAQ under an exception to the qualification standards for a limited period.

Syndicate Bid
A Syndicate Bid can be entered in the NASDAQ System to stabilize the price of a NASDAQ security prior to the effective date of a registered secondary offering. This activity is permissible under SEC Rule 10b-7.

SuperMontage
The NASDAQ Stock Market's trading system to aggregate quotes and orders, providing access to more possible trades. Launched in 2002, SuperMontage is a fully integrated order display and execution system, capable of handling an expanded universe of orders. Key features include pre-trade anonymity, the ability to aggregate interest five price levels deep on each side of the market, internalization of orders still available, time stamps of individual orders to preserve position and priority, elimination of locked and crossed markets and a high level of confidence of best execution for users.

Surprise (Earnings Surprise)
A company earnings report that differs(either positively or negatively) from what analysts were expecting (consensus forecast). This often causes movement in the stock's price.
See Consensus Rating. Special symbols are used for negative actual or expected earnings as follows:
N+ : Negative actual earnings with positive surprise
N- : Negative actual earnings with negative surprise
-+ : Negative consensus earnings with positive actual earnings
-0 : Negative consensus earnings with zero actual earnings
-VL: Very large negative percent surprise
+VL: Very large positive percent surprise
NA : Not available (data necessary for calculation are not available)

TREASURY BOND 30 Year - TYX
The Treasury Bond index - (TYX) is based on 10 times the yield-to-maturity on the most recently auctioned 30-year Treasury bond.

Today's High
The intra-day high trading price.

Today's Intraday Portfolio Value (IPV)
Updated through-out the day, the IPV data is distributed by the exchange.

Today's Low
The intra-day low trading price.

Trading Halt
The temporary suspension of trading in a NASDAQ security, usually for 30 minutes, while material news from the issuer is being disseminated over the news wires. A trading halt gives all investors equal opportunity to evaluate news and make buy, sell, or hold decisions on that basis. A trading halt may also be imposed for purely regulatory reasons, either by The NASDAQ Stock Market or the SEC.

Two Sided Market
The obligation imposed by the NASD that NASDAQ Market Makers make both firm bids and firm asks in each security in which they make a market.

Unallocated Gain
Fund distributions that are not categorized as short, medium or long term.

Underwriter
The investment banking firm that brought the company public.

Up on Unusual Volume
Refers to an increase in stock price for stocks exhibiting unusual volume.

Volatility
The degree of price fluctuation for a given asset, rate, or index; usually expressed as a variance or standard deviation.

Volume
Total volume in each stock reported to The NASDAQ Stock Market from NASD members and exchanges trading NASDAQ securities between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 5:15 P.M. EST.

Warrant
A certificate issued by a company giving the holder the right to purchase securities at a stipulated price within specific time limits or perpetually. A warrant is sometimes offered by a company as an inducement to buy an offering of common stock or other securities.

WEBS
World Equity Benchmark Shares — WEBS Index Shares represent a new approach to international investing, offering passive index management and facilitating targeted portfolio exposure. There's a WEBS Index Series for each of 17 countries. Each WEBS Index Series seeks to track the performance of a specific MSCI Index. Many of these indices have been used by investment professionals for more than 25 years. WEBS are listed on the American Stock Exchange and trade like any other stock.

Yield
In general, a return on an investor's capital investment. For bonds, the coupon rate of interest divided by the purchase price, called current yield. Also, the rate of return on a bond, taking into account the total of annual interest payments, the purchase price, the redemption value, and the amount of time remaining until maturity.
% of Index Weight

This is the market value weighted impact on the value of the Index attributable to a particular stock.

I hope this weblog should be useful to you all.

"Looking at the current attack trends, cyber criminal techniques are evolving quickly and efficiently to not only evade detection, but to steal data and manipulate trusted content such as Web sites and applications," said Dan Hubbard, vice president of security research, Websense, in a media release. "It's critical that organizations and individuals recognize that attackers are changing techniques and launching targeted attacks."

The top 10 security threats are:

2. Nasty spam invades blogs, search engines, forums and Web sites
Websense predicts that hackers will increasingly use Web spam to post URLs to nasty sites within forums, blogs, in the commentary or 'talk-back' sections of news sites and on compromised Web sites. This activity not only drives traffic to the infected Web sites but also assists in the suppliers site sitting higher on search engine rankings, increasing the risk that users will visit the site. For example, the comments I get after posting a blog in our CICS world are like “kgrlsx wyndsmp dcwl knym xvzqg kawz miawuoz”from jsgifwlk feokm.

3. Attackers use Web's 'weakest links' to launch attacks
The Web is a combination of links and content. The advent of Web 2.0 additions such as Google Adsense, mash-ups, widgets, and social networks along with the massive amounts of Web advertisements linked to Web pages have increased the likelihood of 'weak links' -- or Web sites and content that are exposed to compromises.
Websense predicts that attackers will increasingly exploit the weakest links within the Web infrastructure in order to target the greatest number of Internet users. Most vulnerable to these attacks are search engines and large user networks such as MySpace, Facebook or other social networking sites.

4. Number of compromised Web sites will surpass number of created nasty sites
The Web as an attack vector has been steadily increasing for the last five years and now attackers are using compromised sites as their launching platforms -- even more than their own created sites. Compromising sites -- particularly, sites well-visited by end-users, such as the Dolphin Stadium attack that occurred a few days prior to the 2007 Super Bowl XLI in Miami, provides attackers with built-in Web traffic and minimizes the need for attractions through email, instant messaging or Web posts.

5. Cross-platform Web attacks: Mac, iPhone popularity stimulates increase
With the brand popularity and growing use of iPhones and Macintosh computers, Websense researchers predict attackers will increasingly launch cross-platform Web attacks that detect the operating system in use and serve up code specifically targeting that operating system instead of attacks based on just the Web browser. Operating systems that are targeted now include Mac OSX, iPhone, and Windows.

6. Rise in targeted Web 2.0 special interest attacks: Hackers targeting specific groups of people based on interests and profile
Web 2.0 has generated a propagation of Web users that visit chat rooms, social networking sites, and special interest Web sites such as travel sites, automotive, and more. These sites provide attackers with potential victims that fall within a certain age group, wealth bracket, or people with particular purchasing habits. In 2008, Websense researchers predict targeted attacks will rise toward specific social networking or special interest sites that have a higher probability of delivering a payoff.

7. Morphing JavaScript to evade anti-virus scanners
Hackers are increasing the gamble with dodging techniques that use poly-morphic JavaScript (Polyscript) -- which means that a uniquely-coded Web page is served up for each visit by a user to a nasty Web site. By changing the code every visit, signature-based security scanning technologies have difficulty detecting Web pages as nasty and hackers can extend the length of time their nasty site dodges detection.

8. Data cover up methods increase in sophistication
Websense predicts an increased use of crypto-virology and sophistication in data cover up including the use of stenography, embedding data within standard protocols, and potentially within media files. Toolkits widely available on the Web will be used to embed proprietary information and steal data.

9. Global law enforcement will crack down on key hacker groups and individuals
In 2007, large-scale Internet-based attacks earned the attention of law enforcement officials around the world. Websense anticipates that through the global cooperation of enforcement agencies, in 2008 the biggest crackdown and arrests of key members of a hacker group will occur.

10. Vishing and voice spam will combine and increase
The vast cell phone user population has grown into a lucrative market to exploit with spamming and "vishing" for financial gain. To date, researchers have seen an increased number of vishing attacks but not a lot of spam -- or pro-active automated calling. In 2008 Websense predicts that 'vishing,' or the practice of using social engineering and Voice over IP (VoIP) to gain personal and financial information, and voice spam will combine and increase -- users will receive automated voice calls on LAN lines with voice spam to lure them to input their credentials through the telephone.

Factors affecting QoS:
Quality of service is affected by various factors, which can be divided into: (QoS, 2007)
1. Human Factors which include,
• Strength of service,
• Availability of service,
• Latency,
• User details.

2. Technical factors which include
• Dependability,
• Measurability,
• Efficiency,
• Maintainability,
• Grade of Service

For mobile multimedia networking service, the most important factors are the call set up delay, possibility of end-end jamming and the effective bandwidth. These factors can be relied on both network and terminal dependent.
The call set up delay is the time interval taken from the moment user begins a network connection request to the acknowledgement showing the call nature received by the calling terminal.

The shortage of network resources either at the users end or the control end can cause failed call efforts. The possibility of end- to- end jamming (blocking) can occur at the radio links, at the interworking units between the mobile multimedia and the fixed networks or the transit networks.The effective bandwidth has been build up to determine the resource usage after considering the QoS requirements and various statistical characteristics, which effectively represents the exchange between sources of different types.

Measurement of QoS parameters:
QoS parameters cannot be always measured directly. The comparative load of their influence in the user's estimate depends on the type and nature of the service. The service requirement for users will be different for different applications like interactive applications, conversational, messaging or recovery services and distribution services.
On the other hand, Network Performance (NP) parameters are measurable. The Network Performance reflects the efficiency of the network in providing services to customers including many factors that influence QoS. The network providers combine the principles of the QoS parameters, so that the customers are fully satisfied with the resulting QoS obtained at an satisfactory cost. The essential difference between QoS and NP is that QoS is more of user oriented and NP is more of provider oriented. The terminal also has a strong control on the quality. The relationship between QoS and NP is complex to determine and it is difficult to know the range of each NP parameter generating a desired quality of service levels. When there are several sets of network performance parameters, it leads to an acceptable quality of service. Out of these sets, whichever set has low network costs is chosen.

QoS Management:
The performance properties that influence the quality of multimedia presentations are of a major concern.
• End-user preferences and requirements: The end users require excellent sound and video quality and low cost
• Terminal constraints: There are many restrictions to screen size, audio equipments, operating systems feedback, availability of decoding software, etc.
• Server constraints: Constraints in the form of number of users, overall throughput limitations etc.
•Viewed document constraints: There are concerns regarding encoded information structure, measurable encodings etc
• Network constraints: Concerns regarding available throughput, delay, jitter plays a major role in network constraints.

QoS over mobile links
When mobile multimedia transport systems are working in a location where extensive mobility and alteration of network characteristics are prevalent, these systems will not be efficient. These challenges, primarily due to large- scale mobility requirement s, limited radio resources and fluctuating network conditions, fundamentally impact on our ability to deliver multimedia flows over mobile and, in general, QoS fluctuating networks. Therefore, one of the major challenges is the delivery of multimedia flows to mobile devices with QoS constraints.

The consequence of the mobile multimedia network during the transmission of packets depends on various factors that include the load on the network and its behavior after losing the packets and during retransmissions. Due to constraint in the bandwidth and drastic bit error rate, there are problems popped up by the nature of the medium in a network. The strength of a signal shows the quantum of traffic received, the different paths in which the packets need to take and the execution of handovers taking place. All these have an impact on QoS. Different applications will increase the loads on the network thereby increasing traffics. These applications will need different quality of service requirements like delay, jitter, bandwidth etc for various streams like data, voice and video.

User Perception:
The way in which, a user differentiates a QoS is an important issue. They can be differentiated as a measure of quality with reference to a particular case. Other type of differentiation is the evaluation of the quality of a particular application like video clip depending on the actual length of the same with respect to time.

When a multimedia video clip is transmitted through a network, it experiences lot of disturbances like congestion, packet delays etc. Assume that a clip is transmitted across a network, which is affected by various types of disturbance in terms of congestion. This can be shown in the required quantum of corrupted packets and request for retransmissions. Therefore the time plays an important role when there is disturbance caused by the effects of network. There can be different cases and manners, when a user views a video clip. One case will be viewing with less and frequent disturbances to quality. Other will be a case with long and rare disturbances during the entire video clip.

This is my first technical blog and I wanted to make it as detailed as possible on this topic on QoS.

References:
(QoS, 2007) Quality of Service in broadband networks. Retrieved October 11, 2007, from Quality of Service Web site: http://cnx.org/content/m13374/latest/

(QoS Evaluation, 2002): Subjective Evaluation of QoS ; Quality of Service for Mobile Multimedia Communication http://www.een.bris.ac.uk/UMPTIDUMPTI/data/papers/rhodes/rhodes.html

(Wolisz, Adam, 2000). TKN telecommunications network group - Prof. Wolisz. Retrieved October 5, 2007, from Handover in all IP mobile networks Web site: http://www.tkn.tu-berlin.de/research/handover/handover.htm

It has become obsolete where the pages housing the route maps guiding the driving directions. Today global positioning systems (GPS) has bolstered the people in quick access of the information with addition to safety and time parameters there by administering hassle free and safe journey.

Today people seldom visits banks and their daily transactions are still monitored on a mouse click which is a good example for communication advancement. New birth in information has geared the credit card companies to share their financial transaction online there by making it reliable, quickest mode of information transfer and indirectly saving the environment by suppressing the paper consumption.

Virtually cost free publication on the web has led to information overload, AI with its roots in knowledge representation is experiencing a communication renaissance, as new tools emerge to make the web more tractable. Information Renaissance is happening in all the applications like education, health care, technology etc

In general, current world is in need of information and communication, and its every day growth is imperative for the people to lead a knowledgeable, safe and enjoyable journey which is the so called "Life".

Etymology of Web 2.0
Before going to the definition of Web 2.0, I would like to write about etymology of that word. This term was invented by Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty. They saw that many of today's successful companies shared a similar set of characteristics. The Web 2.0 companies shared a very different approach from the dotcom companies of 2000.

In this definition there are five key words –

1) Network as a platform:
Simplifies distribution, Easy way of maintaining code, Faster speed to market, Share data across devices, Subscription model vs. one off purchase

2) Continually updated service:
When more people tend to use, the service gets updated frequently.

3) Consuming and remixing data:
The data can be viewed by anyone in the world and they can give their comments for betterment of the data, which helps the user to change the data accordingly.

4) Architecture of participation:
Providing a service, not a product (infoware not software),Encourage user contribution (reviews, comments) , Collective intelligence (PageRank, folksonomies, popularity), Make it easy to re-use and re-mix, Customer self-service, Community and sense of ownership

5) Rich user experiences:
Easy to use, Pleasurable to use, Build social networks, Rich user interface, Functions like a traditional application

Difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0:

The above diagram shows the way organizations interact with customers during Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. In Web 1.0, when a transaction happens between organization and customer, the customer provides a feedback of the transaction made. This is mostly a one-way communication which has less effect on the product or on the customer satisfaction. But in Web 2.0, there are interactions happening between the customers and the organization. After those interactions, the organizations understand the customers needs and then they help them in the form of contributions. There are lot of conversations taking place between customers and organizations. Therefore more two-way communication is done in Web 2.0.

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/favorites/the-difference-between-web-10-and-web-20/665/
The above diagram shows the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 in terms of number of users. Web 1.0 was considered mostly as read only web. It had only 250000 sites and had only 45 million global users. It was more of one way communication, wherein the published content was visible to the users and the user generated content was very less. But in Web 2.0, there are almost 80 million websites. They were called read-write web. There were both published content made by the sites and the user generated content made by common people. There were almost 25% users generating contents. There are more than a billion global users as on 2006.

Why Web 2.0 ?
Web 2.0 is the current standard for web applications. It is unavoidable. We need to live with it. It is also more User-centered. They are highly usable and users add value. This supports the concept of “The World is Flat”. When we create a blog in Muncie, we get comments and suggestions from person sitting in Australia. The person who is commenting will not be known to us before. This in turn paves the way for collaboration. Web 2.0 uses existing technologies in new and innovative ways. It totally changes the way people view the web. The current IT industries have become more matured through this, which helped them to have a healthier web economy. All these features are making the world smaller.

Advantages of Web 2.0:
•Help define a complicated set of concepts
•Eases communication
•Good for non-technical people
•Good way to promote a group of technologies
•Open data formats
•User created data
•User owns their own data
•Data used across devices

I feel that in near future with the evolution of Web 3.0, the world becomes still smaller and the proportion of users producing the actual content rather than just consuming the content will grow.

China is being influencing the daily lives of consumers, workers, citizens, and even parents, worldwide. The huge population working for low wages powers the booming Chinese economy. American companies cannot compete with these wages forcing them to move their operations to China or completely change the focus of their business. China, with its dynamic economy, is sometimes a partner and at other times a competitor of the United States. The book depicts how China has made a palpable effect on the American economy and is prompting the world to change along with it. It is forcing us to make big changes in how we think about ourselves as consumers, workers, citizens, and even as parents. Fishman assesses the position of China’s future as a world class power and says that this era is going to be the “Chinese Century”.

Luther’s translation of the Bible into the German language is known as the “Luther Bible". The Luther Bible by reason of its widespread circulation facilitated the emergence of the modern German language by standardizing it for the peoples of the Holy Roman Empire, an empire embodying most of present day Germany. It is considered a landmark in German literature.

His translation made it more accessible to ordinary people and had a tremendous impact on the church and on German culture. The translation also furthered the development of a standard version of the German language and added several principles to the art of translation. It is more important to translate the meaning of the original than to replicate its form.

Luther wrote: “I wanted to speak German, not Latin or Greek, since it was German I had undertaken to speak in the translation ... Therefore I must let the literal words go and try to learn how the German says that which the Hebrew [or Greek] expresses ... Words are to serve and follow the meaning, not meaning the words.” There is a corollary to this principle: In order to communicate, a translation must change the linguistic form of the original.

In the preface to Job, Luther writes:
"… if it were translated everywhere word for word ... and not for the most part according to the sense, no one would understand it. ... We have taken care to use language that is clear and that everybody can understand, without perverting the sense and meaning”.

His translation of The New Testament w"as published in September 1522. He worked on refining the translation for the rest of his life. The Luther Bible contributed to the emergence of the modern German language and is regarded as a landmark in German literature.

Too many people today take for granted the multiplicity of Bibles in so many languages around the world. It's easy to get a hold of a Bible - one in which you can read easily and conveniently. This was not the case for many people - most people, in fact - centuries ago. Thus, effective translation plays a very important role in this century.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were the founders of Google, did not stick on to the profit based goals, but made sure that their product is built for the consumers. This helped them to create customers for life. Also, Google had never put advertisers ahead of its users. This principle has allowed Google to become a huge rival to its competitors in market share. ‘What does the world want?’ According to John Battelle, a company that answers this question in all point of views can surpass difficult challenges of business and human culture. Apart from Google’s success, The Search also reflects big-picture book about the past, present and future of search technology and the enormous impact on marketing, media, culture, job search, international laws and other areas of human interest.

Thus, Google is a typical example of one of the web 2.0 companies, running successfully in this current era. One of the article in Business week rates this book as high and worth reading it.

The three chapters in the book is based on an ancient formula, “Rule of Three” as the mind easily receives, retains, and recalls information presented to it in threes. This book conveys an innovative and practical approach through real-world case studies and interviews and in creating strategic stories that project a positive future to audience, speaking the language of buy-in with images that mold powerful thoughts and emotions in listeners and putting the language to work in service of your goal - whether the goal is to raise sales, inspire a work force, or win an election.

If you want to know about the key points of this book, then click this link.

Online content syndication is a growing industry sector, in terms of hardware and software development. In the early days, this syndication was a tough process. When there was an agreement between the supplier and their customers, the customers used to copy the desired content from the supplier's Web site and paste it into their own. These activities were done manually. With the development of electronic content syndication could automate every aspect of online content syndication. The industry which was built on online syndication needed to standardize data exchange mechanism and metadata vocabulary (an identifier) because suppliers and subscribers were often using different and incompatible technologies.

Traditional Business Model to New Aggregation Model:
Traditional business models for commercial electronic content aggregation are now challenged by individuals and institutions equipped with powerful content technologies. They see the traditional models being out of touch with their needs for complex content integration. New technologies and content technologies are challenging these old business models. The New model is a boon for commercial electronic content aggregation services that requires content and technology suppliers to focus on product and service development in attributes of content aggregation that suit the needs of customers to participate aggressively in the content production, aggregation and distribution process. With today’s institutions and individuals equipped with powerful content technologies and universal network connectivity, commercial content aggregators face an array of new challenges and opportunities that require aggregators, publishers and the institutions that they serve to rethink how they can face the future of content monetization effectively. In this new model, profits flow to those suppliers that can optimize specific variables of the content aggregation model which allows client to select the technology to their will. This era has become more customer-oriented. Those who see the customer’s requirements and create technology which suites their needs will survive in the market. (New Aggregation, 2007)

Key Factors Driving the Rise of Web Content Aggregators: (Key factors, 2007)
• Demand for business-to-business content: The customer interests plays a major role. They should come back to the web time to time for keeping the business running.
• Anyone can publish content for the Web: This medium is available to anyone with a computer and an internet connection.
• Traditional journalists are migrating to this New Media: They see a lot of growth potential in this area.
• Syndication: Web content aggregators play a major role in seeting up a collaborative network.
• Variety of content formats: Various formats like XML, HTML and wireless networks are on demand and they help in integrating them into a common platform.
• Broadband content: Availability of distributing content, which features video and sound is growing.
• New Business Models: To support free content, increase the audience, taking care of old and new content providers are playing an important role in creating new business models.

Web Content Aggregators and their Competition:
Moving content from content partners through the content aggregators and to the customers is a strategic process. Providing online content is big business, and it will remain a big business as long as web surfers continue to come back to them for more good online information and can choose the content they want. Due to the demand for business-to-business content on Web sites Web content aggregators have the economic relationships, infrastructure, business models, and momentum that may attract many companies struggling with the content needs of intranets and portals. They could emerge as big winners in the online content licensing business. They survive only by reaching a broader audience through syndication opportunities, providing a wider variety of content and introducing new business models. The content aggregators use proprietary software to distribute content to their customers and combine that content directly into the customer's web site or they can host the software on their own servers and link them to their customer’s' Web sites.

The following table shows the competitive comparison between top three web content aggregators and an idea of the current situation in market. This table is made based on the data collected from (Key factors, 2007) and (Content Aggregator, 2007)

Hope these information were useful to you all. Finally I feel that Information renaissance is unavoidable. Even if you like it or not, you have to live with it.

REFERENCES:

(Content Aggregator, 2007). Smart Computing Articles. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Content Aggregators Give (& Sell) The Gift Of Knowledge Web site: http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/r0502/38r02/38r02.asp&guid

(Key factors, 2007). New Web Site Content Options from New Content Aggregators. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Key Factors Driving the Rise of Web Content Aggregators Web site: http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul00/funke.htm

(New Aggregation, 2007). New Aggregation: Models for success. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Research Report Web site: http://shore.com/research/current/reports/SCI200404.html

(Syndication, 2007). What is syndication?. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from Syndication Web site: http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci498311,00.html

Basic Model:

According to Shannon Weaver model, figure 1(Fournier, 2007), a message begins at an information source, which is relayed through a transmitter, and then through a signal towards a receiver. But before it reaches the receiver, the message goes through noise, (Which is the source of interference). Finally the receiver must convey the message to the destination.
If I am having an idea or message, which is called the information source (I want to tell about) then I move my idea from my brain to my mouth, which acts as transmitter. Depending upon the receivers and my common language, I must select words for my transmitter (mouth) to use. Once I start speaking, my voice, which is the signal, is carried through the air towards the listener’s ear, which is the receiver. Along the way, my signal is joined by the combination of other sounds and distractions, which is called noise. The receiver then takes everything it receives and tries to maximize the message and minimize the noise. Finally, the receiver conveys its message to the other person’s mind, which is the destination. This model clearly demonstrates why even the simplest communication can be misunderstood. Transmitting a signal across additional media, not only adds to the complexity of the communication, but also increases the chances of distortion. It depends on understanding how people behave in creativity, exchanging and interpreting messages (Little John 2007, Page 11).

Levels of Problem in Analysis of Communication:
There can be different levels of problems in analyzing Human Communication depending upon the sender and receiver (Chandler Daniel, 1994).
- Technical Problem: How accurately the message can be sent?
- Semantic Problem: How precisely is the meaning conveyed?
- Effective Problem: How effectively does the received meaning affect the behavior?

Means of Communication:
In general there are two means of human communication viz- verbal communication and non-verbal communication.
1) Verbal Communication- It includes speech that uses language to convey a message and anything in writing such as email, short messaging services and letters.
2) Non Verbal Communication- It includes gestures, body language, emotions, eye contact and touch, that will convey the meaning. Once the receiver understands the intended communication transmitted by the sender, he gives a feedback to the sender in the form of verbal or non-verbal communication to indicate that he has understood the message. The non-verbal communication is also as important as verbal communication. An inspiring quote from Ralf Walde Emerson states that “What you do, speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say” (Emerson). This shows the importance of nonverbal forms of communication.

Elements of Human Communication:
I feel that there are five basic elements for a successful communication.
1) Contact – eg: Who is contacting (Sender)
2) Content – eg: What is the message
3) Channel – eg: Mode or medium of the transmission
4) Intended Contact – Person receiving information (or) receiver
5) Effect – Outcome or result of the intended message in the form of feedback

This is similar to Lasswells theory (John Little, 2007 page 313). There are two interesting ideas such as intention – that answers the special needs and the Necessity – to study the receiver and the mode or medium before communicating. This is because information passed on is important as per Senthil Kumar’s quote “Information is magic and wealth” (Senthilkumar, 2007). We can get information from no-man’s land, but sending those information to an intended person or group is important. For example, if I have got some information about technology, and if I am passing them to a group of non-technical people who are not interested in technical works, fail to have a successful communication. In this case, though the intended message was passed onto the receiver, the receiver has no clue about the information passed on to them. This results in negative feedback. If the same communication was passed on to the receivers who are interested in technical information, then there would have been successful communication and the receiver will appreciate for the information. This will remind me of Dr. Jay Gillette’s quote in ICS 602 class in the Center for Information and Communication Sciences, Ball State University “Add value to your domain” (Gillette, 2007). If the communication is done with the people who are interested in the information you intended to pass on, then it becomes successful human communication. Therefore interests of both sender and receiver play an important role.

Listening Skills effect on Communication:
Listening skills are a key part of human communication skills. When the intended information reaches the receiver, the receiver can misinterpret the information leading to chaos. Tom Peters has stated in his book on Thriving on Chaos that we can achieve flexibility by empowering people through listening. He says “Listen constantly, congregate or share ideas / information and recognize achievement" (Peters Tom, 1987).
Between humans, communication includes acts that present knowledge and experiences, gives advice and commands, ask questions. These acts may take many forms, in one of the various manners of communication. The form depends on abilities of the group communicating. Together , content and form makes messages that are sent towards a destination that can be self, another person or to a group. Communication also depends on the focus like who, what, in which form, to whom and outcome. Human communication as per Griffith Goas is common. The common people do not even realize that they are doing it. It happens naturally be it verbal or nonverbal (Griffith, 2007). Effective communication is achieved through awareness of one’s communication skills, socio-culture etc and audience, the choice of channel, medium, one’s attitude towards sender and receiver.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, one would say that human communication includes acts that present knowledge and experience. Also human communication is deemed to be interactive. It is not considered as one-way. It also calls for a response or a feedback from others. I feel that communication is an important binding factor for a successful leader. The importance of communication in leaders is demonstrated daily in organization (Tom Peters, 1987). Finally to me an excellent, successful human communication shall be a process of expressing oneself, both in verbal as well as non-verbal forms, in such a way that the others have readily and clearly understood.

References::
1) Peters J.D (1999). Speaking into the air: A history of the idea of communication Retrieved October 20, 2007 Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
2) Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Inspirational Quotes for Business and Work : Communication Retrieved October 20, 2007 http://humanresources.about.com/od/interpersonalcommunicat/quotes_nonverb.htm
3) Senthilkumar Natchimuthu, 2007, Center for Information and communication sciences, Ball State University, Retrieved October 21, 2007
4) Griffith Goas, Center for Information and communication sciences, Ball State University, Retrieved October 21, 2007
5) Fournier, Stephen M (2007). Shannon and Weaver's Model of Communication. Retrieved October 21, 2007, from A Brief History and Theory of Speaking Web site: http://stevefournier01.tripod.com/hist/hist-6.html
6) Stephen W. Littlejohn. and Karen A. Foss (2007). Theories of Human Communication. (9th ed.). Retrieved October 19, 2007 Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
7) Tom Peters (1987), Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution. Retrieved October 20, 2007New York Harper and Row.
8) Chandler, Daniel (1994). Transmission Model of Communication. Retrieved October 20, 2007, Web site: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/trans.html

Key points of my theory of Human communication:
1) Introduction – An exchange of information, ideas, feelings or messages by means of written, oral, aural communication or actions between two or more individuals.
2) Approaches: Sociological, psychological, linguistic, cybernetic, phenomenological, rhetorical and semiotic approaches.
3) Basic Model - Shannon Weaver model
4) Levels of Problem in Analysis of Communication: Technical Problem, Semantic Problem and Effective Problem
5) Means of Communication - verbal communication and non-verbal communication.
6) Elements of Human Communication – Contact, Content, Channel, Intended Contact, Effect
7) Listening Skills effect on Communication:
8) Conclusion

These key points are written for my group (TEAM 3) for our research paper.

The ultimate goal for collaboration is to honor the legitimate interests of all involved parties.

Some of the guiding principles to collaboration are:

1)Adopt a concern for mutual gain
•Understand that helping others meet their interests can help you meet your interests
•Give up a “must win” attitude

2)Preserve and protect the dignity of all parties
•Keep your focus on issues not personalities
•Separate the people from the problem
•Believe the other party is expressing a legitimate concern when disagreeing with you

3)Listen with empathy – even if you disagree
•Put yourself in other party’s shoes
•Be fully present
•Listen with neutrality and suspend critical judgment

4)Find common ground without forcing change
•Keep the larger vision in mind
•Share common long-range goals

5)Honor diversity including your own perspective
•Know what really matters to you
•Express your point of view – even if you are the lone dissenter
•Remember that different viewpoints promote creativity

6)Commit to creativity – not rigidity
•Create options that will satisfy both parties
•Have backup plans in mind

Ideas from: (Andy Gothreau,2007). Conflict Resolution. Presented at Bracken Library, Ball State University on October 17, 2007

The Renaissance was drastically different from the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, the church held most of the power and its economy was agriculturally based. Exploration and learning was almost put t