Biased media only report what they would like us to hear depending on who runs which empire. The irksome tabloid who is literally running the age-old main stream print media is probably a prime example of how people are not receiving actual news but the political prejudices of media magnates.

These are serious matters because they can affect the response of the local community to both the conflict and the attempts to diffuse the conflict. Everyone knows about the Middle East conflict. Opinion has been sharply divided and you can be convinced either way depending on which television channel that you watch.

Having been fed full of propaganda and lies, it them becomes our responsibility to transfer our decisions into votes.  That is why one of the greatest nations on earth voted one of the thickest presidents ever who caused untold damage to the world. It is only recently that we are trying to get relief from some of his disastrous policies.

The impact of information technology on the political process
Imagine if computing allowed the voters to check information for them, to see what is happening on the ground and to make a final judgment for themselves. We would then be free of the shameless politicking and manipulation that occurs before an election.

At least people will be making independent electoral decisions that depend on their ability to examine information. This would be a welcome relief from some of the laughable results that we are getting in elections when every two bit politician can lay his or her way into high office.

Computing could have a transformative effect on the way that we deal with politics. Our politics at the moment is received rather than created. The ordinary person is removed from the political process and globalization has only served to emphasize this reality. Information technology has played a huge role in Indias economic development. Kamal Nath has stressed the importance that information technology plays in the role of politics with the Indian people.

The decisions that you make in voting for your local councilor will mean absolutely nothing if the commissioner at the European Union can overturn any decision at the stroke of a hand. Without the shining influence of modern technology such as computing, political power will continue to drain away from the public into the seasoned politicians’ hands.

Some people may argue that it is superfluous for a simple piece of equipment such as a personal computer to have such wide ranging influence. I would disagree with them on the basis that the computer is not about the size that it carries but the influence that it can garner.

Imagine if we were allowed to make up our own minds about the Middle East and consequently vote accordingly, perhaps the invasion of foreign countries would no longer be an issue. I always believe that computing empowers people and once people are empowered, they take ownership of the political process. That is probably what the Greeks were thinking about when they introduced democracy centuries ago.

We are then told that some culture cannot accept freedom of speech because it can cause dangerous divisions among the community. Some national leaders have gone as far as saying that their people are too stupid to enjoy freedom of expression and therefore they must be censored. I could write a whole essay about the fallacy of such a claim.

Recently I was listening to a rather silly member of parliament talking about “moral patriotism” in reference to an impoverished African country that was on the verge of enacting some of the most barbaric laws that we have seen in recent times. I did chuckle because the internet will surely dispel the idiocy that is being spouted by such mean spirited people. The internet knows no color or creed. It is about sharing ideas. When people are oppressed, they find it easier to accept that oppression if their governments can convince them that their situation is the best that they can ever have.

The role of modern technology
Computing opens the eyes of those who have been blinded by the narrow dimensions of their limited existence. It allows for people to explore ideas and discuss their impact on their lives. It allows for people to share values and query things that have been fed to them as gospel truth. It is therefore not surprising that some of the most conservative people in the world are the least educated people in the world. Likewise some of the most oppressed people in the world will be those who lack access to computing and the opportunities that it offers.

The greatest threat to the growth and development of computing in the world is the censorship that is expected as a matter of course. Immoral governments try to maintain their grip on power through a series of manipulative intrigues including deception and misinformation.

The gullible and vulnerable will them fall for these scams and end up giving up their valuable human rights. Without censorship, the growth of the computing industry will be enormous. This has enormous implication as to how people see human rights and their willingness to struggle for them.

One of the challenges for the human rights agitators has been the difficulty of trying to identify a global standard for human rights. This allows for localization of human rights abuses that give the justification as the individual needs of a nation. When we hear a ludicrous politician talking about moral patriotism in one of the most corrupt countries ever, you begin to wonder whether there is anyone in those places who cares about human rights. Politicians can lie with impunity and the only rebuttal systems will be the ones that use computing as a tool. Therefore in order to win the battle of human rights, campaigners have to first implement wide spread usage of the computer.

However there is a distinction and it might be important to grasp this distinction. In this article I will attempt to describe some of the crucial differences between these two concepts, trying to explain what are cloud computing and hosting in layman terms. I am sure that there are many technological wizards who will be dying to correct me about these differences but I would respond to the effect that this is the beginning rather that the end. It is not possible to fully exhaust these differences within the confines of a short article.

What is the contrast?
In its simplest forms, web hosting is the facility that is provided for different organizations of individuals whereby their website can anchor on a certain server so that it is available on the internet. This situation arises because the resources that are required to host a website on the internet are often not available to individual users or small businesses webhosting needs. Rather than wasting resources setting up a server, it is advisable to contact a web hosting company. There are also a large variety of website hosting UK companies that can help overseas.

The advantages of using a web hosting company are that it will be managing a large number of websites so that it can pass on economies of scale depending on the size of the firm. If you insist on going for it on your own, then you will not have the capacity to use all the bandwidth that is available to you yet you will have to pay the full cost.

You tend to find that it is either individual users or small companies that hire out webhosting because it is too expensive to do it on their own. However large companies will have such volumes of traffic that it will make sense to organize this service on an in house basis.

Cloud computing on the other hand is concerned with the movement of a whole section of server management to a remote location with another company. Whereas you will be doing your own management within the context of a webhosting arrangement, it is expected that that you will have to give up some of your control under the cloud computing arrangement. For example a large company in Hawaii would outsource their technological management systems to another contractor in India for cost concern, while maintaining high quality standard, which is also covering the areas of reliability and performance benchmark.

For the most part the company in the USA will expect to use a seamless service without much input from its own members of staff. In fact if they are being requested to get involved in the server maintenance and management, then the cloud computing deal will be nothing more than a sham. They have to expect that the information technology will be managed externally. This contrasts rather sharply with the arrangements under a simple webhosting agreement.

When an organization decides to implement cloud computing, they remove the local staff involvement in the information technology systems. If you are going to get rid of the influence of your staff, you need to ensure that the software applications that you are going to use are virtually infallible or close to it. This is why there is such importance placed on the application development for cloud computing.

The application development should follow the same principles that are used when you are managing other IT projects. For example there has to be extensive consultation with the business units which will be most affected by the implementation of cloud computing. The consultation process not only gets ideas from those members of staff but also ensures that employee resistance to change is calmed down as you try to implement a coherent cloud computing mechanism.

You will need to undertake extensive planning to ensure that you have contingency plans for all the glitches that are likely to hit your project as you go along. Above all you must have the flexibility to respond to any changes in the environment within which you are operating. Like most IT projects, the application development for cloud computing will fail if you are not alert to the different changes that will happen over time.

Common examples
For illustrative purposes we can look at one commonly used cloud computing software package. Known as SaaS (abbreviation for Software as a Service), this cloud computing package is used in many of the tasks that we take for granted in our offices and homes. For example web based email services such as Gmail would not be possible without the use of SaaS.

From a developmental point of view the first port of call is to look at some of the issues that affect companies which use SaaS.  Once you have identified these problems then you can incorporate systems within your application development to ensure that you do not get affected by the problems that have been identified. It means learning from the mistakes of other people who have used cloud computing before.

From the top of my head I can identify the problems of connectivity that are associated with cloud computing. Because your information technology systems are being managed from a remote location, it is highly likely that you will have some connectivity problems associated with this fact.

If you take the email communications to start off with, the information is transferred between a minimum of two databases and any number of glitches can occur during the transfer process. It is therefore imperative that you examine the links that you have established with your cloud computing adviser so that they are being closely monitored during the application development phase.

In computing terms, the idea of virtualization is to allow for a multiplicity of access points from a single outlet. The best illustration is that of a web of interrelated personal computers that can each be accessed from whatever remote location.

One of the crucial elements of virtualization is that there is an element of control because the central command unit will be able to supervise the activities of outpost computers. This element is one which delights managers but causes some concern from civil liberties groups.

Cloud computing
Cloud computing utilized the same basic principles as virtualization. It involves the provision of externally managed Information Technology services via hosted software. This system allows for IT systems to be managed from very remote locations where data is accessed and manipulated via a server.

A case in point is a company in the United Kingdom which wishes to reduce the amount of money that it is spending on in house IT schemes. They therefore outsource the IT section of their operations to a hosting company in Prague. This means that people in London work in London but the IT is managed from another location.

If done correctly, the workers in London may not even notice that their IT system is being controlled from a remote location. Cloud computing can greatly enhance the security systems of an organization because it allows for sensitive data to be kept away from the main office yet making it accessible once you go through company IT procedures.

Related cousins

Despite the obvious variety of virtualization systems, the aim has always been to control the activities of the people who work for the company. Once you have a single control device that can regulate the activities of other devices, then you are well on your way to retaining management control.

That is why some organizations face resistance when they attempt to implement virtualization programs. The employees will know that they are being controlled and will try everything in their power to limit the impact of this centralized control.

If you are running a large organization such as a hospital it is possible to use virtualization to split the computer streams into manageable local area networks. The Information Technology department can then create supervision arrangements that are geared to those specific user groups.

The cloud computing context demands different approaches. You are literally outsourcing your information technology and you will need to resolve the normal issues that arise out of an outsourcing project. For example there will problems with compatibility and the staff supervision of the IT sector. You might be taking control form your own members of staff and handing it over to another company when you decide that you are going to implement cloud computing.