A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. It is the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets. Payment gateways encrypt sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, to ensure that information passes securely between the customer and the merchant.
A payment gateway facilitates the transfer of information between a payment portal (such as a website or IVR service) and the Front End Processor or acquiring bank; quickly and securely.
When a customer orders a product from a payment gateway enabled merchant, the payment gateway performs a variety of tasks to process the transaction; completely invisible to the customer.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area, DMA or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content. They can coincide with metropolitan areas, though rural regions with few significant population centers can also be designated as markets. Conversely, very large metropolitan areas can sometimes be subdivided into multiple segments. Market regions may overlap, meaning that people residing on the edge of one media market may be able to receive content from other nearby markets. They are widely used in ratings, which are compiled in the United States by Nielsen Media Research (television) and Arbitron (radio).
In North America, radio markets are generally a bit smaller than their television counterparts, as broadcast power restrictions are stricter for radio than TV, and TV reaches further via cable. AM band and FM band radio ratings are sometimes separated, as are broadcast and cable television. Market researchers also subdivide ratings demographically between different age groups, genders, and ethnic backgrounds; as well as psychographically between income levels and other non-physical factors. This information is used by advertisers to determine how to reach a specific audience. In countries such as the United Kingdom, a government body defines the media markets; in countries such as the United States, media regions are defined by a privately held institution, without government status.
Markets are identified by the largest city, which is usually located in the center. However, geography and the fact that some metropolitan areas have large cities separated by some distance can make markets have unusual shapes and result in two, three, or more names being used to identify a single region (such as Wichita-Hutchinson, Kansas; Chico-Redding, California; Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York; and Harrisburg-Lebanon-Lancaster-York, Pennsylvania).
In North America, radio markets are generally a bit smaller than their television counterparts, as broadcast power restrictions are stricter for radio than TV, and TV reaches further via cable. AM band and FM band radio ratings are sometimes separated, as are broadcast and cable television. Market researchers also subdivide ratings demographically between different age groups, genders, and ethnic backgrounds; as well as psychographically between income levels and other non-physical factors. This information is used by advertisers to determine how to reach a specific audience. In countries such as the United Kingdom, a government body defines the media markets; in countries such as the United States, media regions are defined by a privately held institution, without government status.
Markets are identified by the largest city, which is usually located in the center. However, geography and the fact that some metropolitan areas have large cities separated by some distance can make markets have unusual shapes and result in two, three, or more names being used to identify a single region (such as Wichita-Hutchinson, Kansas; Chico-Redding, California; Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York; and Harrisburg-Lebanon-Lancaster-York, Pennsylvania).
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Market town
Market town is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to hold markets. This distinguishes them from villages and cities. town may be correctly described as a market town even if it no longer holds a market, provided the right to do so still exists. When the dutch hoe revolutionised agriculture in Europe, making crop production more efficient, it would be traded throughout the continent by the travelling market traders who were, doubtless, the reason why markets came to be held on different days of the week in each market town of a particular area.
Market Town may or may not have rights concerning self-government, which is the usual meaning of "town". In England, towns with such rights are usually distinguished with the additional status of Borough. Although it is generally accepted that when a Town was granted a Market it, in effect, became a free person.
The National Federation of Market Traders (NFMT), situated in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, has 36,000 members and has close links with other market traders' federations throughout Europe. Many people believe that when buying in an English market they are taking a risk. This is not the case. All market customers have the same rights as they would when shopping with any other retailer and, therefore can buy with confidence.
The right to hold markets is similarly recollected in the names of many towns in Germany and Austria which have the prefix Markt, for example Markt Berolzheim or Marktbergel. Other terms used for market towns were Flecken in northern Germany or Wigbold in Westphalia. The status of market towns (Marktgemeinde, Market communities) is still in official use, but without legal significance in Bavaria, Austria, and Bolzano-Bozen (Italy).
Market Town may or may not have rights concerning self-government, which is the usual meaning of "town". In England, towns with such rights are usually distinguished with the additional status of Borough. Although it is generally accepted that when a Town was granted a Market it, in effect, became a free person.
The National Federation of Market Traders (NFMT), situated in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, has 36,000 members and has close links with other market traders' federations throughout Europe. Many people believe that when buying in an English market they are taking a risk. This is not the case. All market customers have the same rights as they would when shopping with any other retailer and, therefore can buy with confidence.
The right to hold markets is similarly recollected in the names of many towns in Germany and Austria which have the prefix Markt, for example Markt Berolzheim or Marktbergel. Other terms used for market towns were Flecken in northern Germany or Wigbold in Westphalia. The status of market towns (Marktgemeinde, Market communities) is still in official use, but without legal significance in Bavaria, Austria, and Bolzano-Bozen (Italy).
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden (September 17–September 25, 1944) was an Allied military operation in World War II. Its tactical objectives were to secure a series of bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherlands by large-scale use of airborne forces together with a rapid advance by armored units along the connecting roads, for the strategic purpose of allowing an Allied crossing of the Rhine river, the last major natural barrier to an advance into Germany. The planned rapid advance from the Dutch-Belgian border into northern Germany, across the Maas (Meuse) and two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine), would have outflanked the Siegfried Line and made possible an encirclement of the Ruhr Area, Germany's industrial heartland.
After major defeats in Normandy in July to August 1944, remnants of German forces withdrew across the Low Countries and eastern France towards the German border by the end of August. In the north, the British 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was advancing on a line running from Antwerp to the northern border of Belgium. The First Canadian Army was just finishing their own offensive northward along the coast and were too fatigued to take part in major actions. To their south, the U.S. 12th Army Group under General Omar Bradley was nearing the German border and had been ordered to orient on the Aachen gap with the U.S. First Army. In the south, the U.S. 6th Army Group under General Jacob L. Devers was advancing towards Germany after their landings in southern France.
Following the British and Canadian breakout from Caen and the closure of the Falaise pocket, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, favoured a broad advance eastwards to the Rhine across a wide front, combined with capture and clearance of the Channel ports and Antwerp (Hibbert 1998, p. 8). This strategy was contested by the field commanders, especially Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery who commanded the British 21st Army Group in the north, and General George Patton, commander of the US 3rd Army in the south. Both favored rapid, concentrated thrusts across the Rhine in their own sectors. With the supply situation deteriorating in early September, a broad advance became impossible; there were not enough supplies moving forward to keep all of the armies in "combat supply".
After major defeats in Normandy in July to August 1944, remnants of German forces withdrew across the Low Countries and eastern France towards the German border by the end of August. In the north, the British 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was advancing on a line running from Antwerp to the northern border of Belgium. The First Canadian Army was just finishing their own offensive northward along the coast and were too fatigued to take part in major actions. To their south, the U.S. 12th Army Group under General Omar Bradley was nearing the German border and had been ordered to orient on the Aachen gap with the U.S. First Army. In the south, the U.S. 6th Army Group under General Jacob L. Devers was advancing towards Germany after their landings in southern France.
Following the British and Canadian breakout from Caen and the closure of the Falaise pocket, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, favoured a broad advance eastwards to the Rhine across a wide front, combined with capture and clearance of the Channel ports and Antwerp (Hibbert 1998, p. 8). This strategy was contested by the field commanders, especially Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery who commanded the British 21st Army Group in the north, and General George Patton, commander of the US 3rd Army in the south. Both favored rapid, concentrated thrusts across the Rhine in their own sectors. With the supply situation deteriorating in early September, a broad advance became impossible; there were not enough supplies moving forward to keep all of the armies in "combat supply".
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Marketing strategy
A marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
A publishing strategy can serve as the foundation of a marketing plan. A marketing plan contains a set of specific actions required to successfully implement a marketing strategy. For example: "Use a low cost product to attract consumers. Once our organization, via our low cost product, has established a relationship with consumers, our organization will sell additional, higher-margin products and services that enhance the consumer's interaction with the low-cost product or service."
A strategy consists of a well thought out series of tactics to make a marketing plan more effective. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results.
Marketing participants often employ strategic models and tools to analyze marketing decisions. When beginning a strategic analysis, the 3Cs can be employed to get a broad understanding of the strategic environment. An Ansoff Matrix is also often used to convey an organization's strategic positioning of their marketing mix. The 4Ps can then be utilized to form a marketing plan to pursue a defined strategy.
A publishing strategy can serve as the foundation of a marketing plan. A marketing plan contains a set of specific actions required to successfully implement a marketing strategy. For example: "Use a low cost product to attract consumers. Once our organization, via our low cost product, has established a relationship with consumers, our organization will sell additional, higher-margin products and services that enhance the consumer's interaction with the low-cost product or service."
A strategy consists of a well thought out series of tactics to make a marketing plan more effective. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results.
Marketing participants often employ strategic models and tools to analyze marketing decisions. When beginning a strategic analysis, the 3Cs can be employed to get a broad understanding of the strategic environment. An Ansoff Matrix is also often used to convey an organization's strategic positioning of their marketing mix. The 4Ps can then be utilized to form a marketing plan to pursue a defined strategy.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
SPARQL
SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") is an RDF query language; its name is a recursive acronym that stands for SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language. It is standardized by the RDF Data Access Working Group (DAWG) of the World Wide Web Consortium. Initially released as a Candidate Recommendation in April 2006, but returned to Working Draft status in October 2006, due to two open issues. In June 2007, SPARQL advanced to Candidate Recommendation once again. On 12th November 2007 the status of SPARQL changed into Proposed Recommendation. On 15th January 2008, SPARQL was standardized.
SPARQL allows for a query to consist of triple patterns, conjunctions, disjunctions, and optional patterns.
Several implementations for multiple programming languages exist. "SPARQL will make a huge difference" according to Sir Tim Berners-Lee in a May 2006 interview.
Variables are indicated by a "?" or "$" prefix. Bindings for ?capital and the ?country will be returned.
The SPARQL query processor will search for sets of triples that match these four triple patterns, binding the variables in the query to the corresponding parts of each triple. Important to note here is the "property orientation" (class matches can be conducted solely through class-attributes / properties - see Duck typing)
To make queries concise, SPARQL allows the definition of prefixes and base URIs in a fashion similar to Turtle. In this query, the prefix "abc" stands for “http://example.com/exampleOntology#”.
SPARQL allows for a query to consist of triple patterns, conjunctions, disjunctions, and optional patterns.
Several implementations for multiple programming languages exist. "SPARQL will make a huge difference" according to Sir Tim Berners-Lee in a May 2006 interview.
Variables are indicated by a "?" or "$" prefix. Bindings for ?capital and the ?country will be returned.
The SPARQL query processor will search for sets of triples that match these four triple patterns, binding the variables in the query to the corresponding parts of each triple. Important to note here is the "property orientation" (class matches can be conducted solely through class-attributes / properties - see Duck typing)
To make queries concise, SPARQL allows the definition of prefixes and base URIs in a fashion similar to Turtle. In this query, the prefix "abc" stands for “http://example.com/exampleOntology#”.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Baybayin or Alibata
Baybayin or Alibata (known in Unicode as the Tagalog script) is a pre-Hispanic Philippine writing system that originated from the Javanese script Old Kawi. The writing system is a member of the Brahmic family (and an offshoot of the Vatteluttu alphabet) and is believed to be in use as early as the 14th century. It continued to be in use during the Spanish colonization of the Philippines up until the late 19th Century. The term baybayin literally means syllables. Closely related scripts are Hanunóo, Buhid, and Tagbanwa.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Web 3.0
Web 3.0 is a term used to describe the future of the World Wide Web. Following the introduction of the phrase "Web 2.0" as a description of the recent evolution of the Web, many technologists, journalists, and industry leaders have used the term "Web 3.0" to hypothesize about a future wave of Internet innovation.
Web 3.0 technologies, such as intelligent software that utilize semantic data, have been implemented and used on a small scale by multiple companies for the purpose of more efficient data manipulation. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing focus on bringing semantic web technologies to the general public.
Related to the artificial intelligence direction, Web 3.0 could be the realization and extension of the Semantic web concept. Academic research is being conducted to develop software for reasoning, based on description logic and intelligent agents. Such applications can perform logical reasoning operations using sets of rules that express logical relationships between concepts and data on the Web.
Sramana Mitra differs on the viewpoint that Semantic Web would be the essence of the next generation of the Internet and proposes a formula to encapsulate Web 3.0
Web 3.0 technologies, such as intelligent software that utilize semantic data, have been implemented and used on a small scale by multiple companies for the purpose of more efficient data manipulation. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing focus on bringing semantic web technologies to the general public.
Related to the artificial intelligence direction, Web 3.0 could be the realization and extension of the Semantic web concept. Academic research is being conducted to develop software for reasoning, based on description logic and intelligent agents. Such applications can perform logical reasoning operations using sets of rules that express logical relationships between concepts and data on the Web.
Sramana Mitra differs on the viewpoint that Semantic Web would be the essence of the next generation of the Internet and proposes a formula to encapsulate Web 3.0
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which web content can be expressed not only in natural language, but also in a format that can be read and used by software agents, thus permitting them to find, share and integrate information more easily. It derives from W3C director Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the Web as a universal medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange.
At its core, the semantic web is comprised of a philosophy, a set of design principles, collaborative working groups, and a variety of enabling technologies. Some elements of the semantic web are expressed as prospective future possibilities that have yet to be implemented or realized.[4] Other elements of the semantic web are expressed in formal specifications. Some of these include Resource Description Framework (RDF), a variety of data interchange formats (e.g. RDF/XML, N3, Turtle, N-Triples), and notations such as RDF Schema (RDFS) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL), all of which are intended to provide a formal description of concepts, terms, and relationships within a given knowledge domain.
The Semantic Web Ping Service is a notification service for the semantic web that tracks the creation and modification of RDF based data sources on the Web. It provides Web Services for loosely coupled monitoring of RDF data. In addition, it provides a breakdown of RDF data sources tracked by vocabulary that includes: SIOC, FOAF, DOAP, RDFS, and OWL.
At its core, the semantic web is comprised of a philosophy, a set of design principles, collaborative working groups, and a variety of enabling technologies. Some elements of the semantic web are expressed as prospective future possibilities that have yet to be implemented or realized.[4] Other elements of the semantic web are expressed in formal specifications. Some of these include Resource Description Framework (RDF), a variety of data interchange formats (e.g. RDF/XML, N3, Turtle, N-Triples), and notations such as RDF Schema (RDFS) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL), all of which are intended to provide a formal description of concepts, terms, and relationships within a given knowledge domain.
The Semantic Web Ping Service is a notification service for the semantic web that tracks the creation and modification of RDF based data sources on the Web. It provides Web Services for loosely coupled monitoring of RDF data. In addition, it provides a breakdown of RDF data sources tracked by vocabulary that includes: SIOC, FOAF, DOAP, RDFS, and OWL.
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