COMMUNICATION

Topics of concern

Concepts: What we mean by Communication, and what elements are necessary to maximize our effectiveness as communicators

Skills: The skills and behavior which improve communication, and how they can be developed

Structure: The approach, style and construction of communication for personal and corporate uses.

ELEMENTS IN COMMUNICATION

SENDER – Originator of the Communication

MESSAGE AND CODING – Code Content and Treatment; The Language and manner of Presentation

MEDIUM AND CHANNEL – Written, Oral, Combination of Written and Oral

DECODING AND FILTER OF PERCEPTION – Interpretation of the Message

RECEIVER – To whom the message is communicated

FEEDBACK – Response of the Receiver to the Sender, Completes the Communication Loop

COMMUNICATION VEHICLES

Outwardly directed

SPEECH- Face to Face
Telephone

WRITING- Formal – Long reports, Short Letters
Informal – Memos

VISUAL / GRAPHICS- Diagram

Picture

PERSONAL SIGNALS- Facial expression

(Non-verbal) ‘Body Language’

Incoming

LISTENING- Active Listening (Not just hearing)

READING- Active Reading (Not just seeing the words)

WATCHING- Active Watching (Not just looking)

PROBLEM AREAS IN COMMUNICATION

Selective Attention

Inattention, Distrust of communication, Absence of interest

Receiver ignores the information that conflicts with what he already knows

Receiver hears what he expects to hear

Inappropriate time of communication

Selective Perception

Sender and Receiver have different background / experience

Receiver hears what he expects to hear

Fear or failure to communicate

Prohibitive nature of organizational structure

Selective Retention

Badly expressed message

Faulty translations

Distortion or loss in transmission

BUILDING SENDER SKILLS

Create atmosphere for free flow of communication

Communicate in the receiver’s background and interest

Face to face communication

Be clear and to the point

Use simple, non-technical and direct language

Use human interest words and personal references

Economize on adjectives

Use active verbs

Use suitable tone of communication

Put emphasis on the communication

Time element

Never initiate unnecessary communication

Reduce length of communication channel

BUILDING RECEIVER SKILLS

1. Questions

Open
Begin with What, When, How, Which, Where, Why, Who
Requires explanation / description in the answer

Closed
Lead to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer
- Will you be speaking to Harish this week?
- Have you started on the new assignment yet?
Elicits only the answer to that specific question

Leading
- You are going to that meeting, aren’t you?
- You haven’t got to rush off this evening, have you?
Indicates the desired / expected response

2. Cues

Reflecting / Restatement
Encourages expansion of the point, for example
- Well, it’s far too complex; it won’t work
Restate
- You feel we’re likely to have problems

Request
Specifies what expansion you need
- Tell me more about…
- Give me an example of that

Probing
- I expect some aspects which will be easier than others. You probably have a fair idea what they are
- I expect you are experienced in this area
- Your views are important; I’d really like to know what you think
- That’s often a problem area, I hear

3. Listening characteristics

POOR LISTENERS	GOOD LISTENERS
Interrupt	Use eye contact
Change the subject	Look attentive but relaxed
Yes, but… style	Give cues and prompts
Use negative body language	Take time to listen
Are easily distracted	Ask open questions
Are impatient	Don’t interrupt
Appear not to listen	Use positive body language
Take over the conversation	Concentrate
Ask few questions	Do not appear to judge
Ask closed questions	Ask for opinions, views and feelings
Insist on having the last word	Are patient
Clearly want to talk, not listen	Show they have identified key points

Medical image processing

Image processing defines algorithms to process 2D and 3D digital images for meaningful interpretation of image content. Modern medical science has seen unprecedented growth in the use of imaging technology. Medical domain specific sensors are generating a wide variety of signals, which are visualized as digital images – either as a static image frame or as a video. Therefore, it’s becoming imperative that more and more image processing algorithms are necessary to process these images.

The overall objective of these imaging applications is to use it as diagnosis-aiding tool helping medical practitioners. There are now a number of surgical procedures where the doctors have to completely depend on the imaging process. Overall medical image processing is a sunrise sector both for imaging and bio-medical experts.

INTERNET GOVERNANCE

The Internet has grown to its present form since its beginning without too much regulation except defining protocols and standards to ensure the interoperability of heterogeneous systems. But as soon as the commercial activities started taking place on the internet the need of having regulations was realized. Standards and routine administration, encryption, digital signature, ISP licensing, IPR, tariff, cyber crimes etc. were the questions raised as soon as the commercial activities came to the forefront. The debate is now live because the key issue is “What kind of regulations?” rules by government or self-regulations by business and users?

On one hand where the impact of Internet on education, health, government and other areas of activity has been realized world over, at the same time cyber crimes, such as fraud, gambling, pornography, and ID theft misuse and abuse in the form of malicious code and spam has brought the growing awareness of the social, economic, and political impact of the Internet Governance into sharper focus.

Internet Governance is needed to:

• Maintain Compatibility and Interoperability
• Safeguard the rights and define the responsibilities of the various stake holders
• Protect all the end users from misuse and abuse
• Encourage further development
• Prevent or at least minimize, the risk of fragmentation of the internet.

WEB PORTALS

A web portal is a single point of access to information which is linked from various logically related internet based applications and of interest to various types of users. Portals present information from various diverse sources in a unified way They are an excellent way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications. A wide range of technologies supports the creation and maintenance of web portals.

A web portal is a special web site designed to act as a gateway to other related sites. Web portals are designed to retain their users who must return to them frequently .They provide a useful means of making content readily available to authorized users in a convenient form.

Businesses are rapidly turning to portals to foster more integrated, web based user experiences for employees, customers, and vendors. By providing collaborative, personalized and adaptive workspaces, portals are facilitating effective ways to acquire, serve and retain customers. Web portals enable effective management of production and sales. It is proving to be a cost effective solution to empower staff with instant access to vital information.

Web portals are found in many domains of specialization. The consumer portals offer a wide range of customization options and functionality including: Internet search and navigation, email, news, weather, sports and horoscopes.

Madras Week Celebrations are on ...

The founding day of Madras is considered to be 22nd August 1639. So the Chennai city deserves to celebrate its birthday on 22nd August . The city stands high for a variety of reasons. Its development is awesome in the fields of IT, Health care, Education, Industries of all sectors and Entertainment. To enhance the participation of the public the Madras day has been extended to create the Madras week. And this week is termed as the Madras week (August 17th to 24th) every year and it celebrates the city.

The Madras day mainly focuses on the city and its history. The volunteers who love the city motivate the communities and groups to conduct numerous events and celebrate the city. Usually events like heritage talks, walks, bullet bike rides around the city, various contests like poetry ,music and quiz, rallies, food fests, exhibitions and more will be conducted all around felicitating the Chennai city.

Golden Icons of Chennai

First row: Rajaji, C V Raman, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Second row: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, M S Subbulakshmi, Rukmini Devi Arundale, Jayakanthan
Third row: R K Narayan, Subramania Bharathi, Ramaswamy Venkataraman

The 2008 Madras Week celebrations are going on throughout the city daily. Various events are scheduled everyday. Heritage talks about the city are conducted almost daily. People from various countries who have settled in madras share their views about the city. Heritage walk is also organized by volunteers all around the city. Exhibitions and contests are also being organized. The timings and venue of all the events are found in the link below.
http://sriramv.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/madras-week-2008-event-schedule/

Some of the other events conducted this year are:

• Book release: "Historic Residences of Chennai" and "Release of Dr. K.V. Raman’s The Early History of the Madras Region"
• Live presentation contest for city schools
• Spoken word/poetry reading sessions
• Live demo of food, clothes, lifestyle, dance, music and lots more at the Asan Memorial School
• Stories on Madras for children aged between 6 -12
• Session on Wildlife in Chennai to create awareness and depict the importance of natural heritage in Chennai
• Quiz Contest on Chennai conducted at the Rotary Club of Madras
• Documentary Film Festival

I request all the chennaites to participate in the events and celebrate the city.Lets Rock around the city !!!!!

Online Medical Assistant Training Program

Are u looking for a new career ? This is what you have waited for so long.

St. Augustine School of Medical Assistants help you to achieve your goal. They offer online training with their nationally accredited and certified Medical Assistant Training Program. This program will help you to study at your convenience where you can finish the course in 6-8 weeks or however long you desire based on your own daily commitments. They are very flexible and affordable with easy payment methods. Their team comprises of experts in the field of health care . All the classes are online and they have virtual labs and qualified professionals to review the program to provide you with best results. I assure that you can earn your certificate in the most convenient and efficient way possible. You have all time online support to resolve your queries and problems with personal attention.

Some of the other programs they offer for you:

Ø Medical assistant courses

Ø Nursing assistant programs

Ø Nursing Aide programs

Ø Home health care courses

Ø Pharmacy Technician Program

Ø Dental Assistant Program

For more details log in to:

http://www.medassistant.org

The employment opportunities are excellent once you finish your course. So come enroll yourself for a good career in the rapidly growing health care industry. Your career is just a click away . Click and grab the opportunity.

http://www.medassistant.org/registration.html

Amazing World Records!!!!!

This Beijing Olympics 2008 has to its credit many world records to cherish its memories. There has been 23 world records set since the start of the competition.It will definitely be a euphoric moment for China to top the list with 35 Gold as of now.Today the games offered 37 golds and this is the maximum of any day in Olympics.

Some of the amazing records this Olympics has brought about:

Michael Phelps took a record-breaking eighth gold in single Olympics games, winning the men's 4x100 meters medley relay today in Beijing to beat fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's seven in the year 1972.He has totally 14 career golds to his credit at the age of 23 and that's really fantastic.


Usain Bolt who won the men's 100 meters Olympic gold in dazzling style ,in 9.69 seconds effacing his own world record.Actually when he crossed 50 metres , he observed that no one were so near him too.Had he not wasted time in that he would have finished in 9.65 seconds itself.Awesome record isn't it.....?

He kissed his shoes after winning .It was his day and he had reached his aim of winning.

Britain's Rebecca Adlington breaks Janet Evans world record in 800 free style.She was six months old when Evans set the record in 8:16.22.Rebecca swam the race in 8 minutes 14.10 seconds to break her record.

How can i leave without the special mention of our champion Abhinav Bindra,the shooter, who won India's first ever individual Olympic gold in the 10m Air Rifle event at the Olympics.
A proud moment for all the Indians.I hope this would encourage all the young chaps of our country.This would make our Government realise their mistake of dumping all the funds for cricket.This emphatically would have an impact on all the sportsmen of our country and I dream better future prospects for India.

A Grand Alumni Celebration

Easwari Engineering College in chennai , organised a grand alumni meet on 15th August between 6 to 9pm in Radha Regent Hotel in Vadapalani. Our Principal, Director, Hod and Lectures had come to grace the occasion. Last four years' passed out students (2005-2008) had come for the meet.
The agenda was how to improve our college standards in terms of best facilities in all aspects. Students who are employees of many esteemed companies shared their views. They also came forward in providing job opportunities for all the students who have not been placed yet. All the dignitaries were happy with the suggestions and sponsors the alumnae were ready to afford. They were extremely delighted with the support which they got from the passed out students.
The representatives from every department shared their views regarding the meet. They expressed their joy in meeting all their friends back again . They thanked the organisation for having provided an opportunity to meet all of them under one roof after their college life. All the students were provided a delicious dinner after the session . With the hip hip hurray and the usual enthusiasm we had a grand finale.

I am sharing with you some of the pictures which we took in the Radha regent hotel .

Jaane Tu ...ya jaane na

I happened to watch this movie with all my friends recently. I liked the movie so much, its awe-inspiring. The way jay and aditi's friends' narrate the story in the airport is extremely pleasing. A person with no interest in listening to stories will also enjoy it as shown in the movie.

Their gang is full of romantic confusions as Jay's mom would describe sarcastically.Amar Singh Rathore has lived in the movie being dead. The conversations between him and jay's mom are so comical.


Their nick names jiggy,meow,rats,rotu,pappu remind us of our friends.Jay and Aditi are too good in the movie. The movie has everything for the young chap.Parties,day outs,dance music,sentiment,romance,comedy,surprises and more. The game they play "Whats this" is also enjoyable.

There are three conditions in the Rathore family which a guy should satisfy to qualify to be a man. First is riding a horse ,next beating someone and the last is going to jail. Jay will satisfy all the three in the climax.


Genelia is so cute in the movie except for the last scene because that hair style doesn't suit her. We even disliked Jay when he moves so close with nena and avoids Aditi .

The movie's storyline goes like this.Relations are so precious and maintaining them is very crucial.Equal importance to friends and lover is necessary to avoid misunderstandings among friends.

The airport scene where he proposes Aditi singing that song is so funny. On the whole its an entertainment movie or i would say a time pass movie if you are too bored. It changes your mood which is the credit to the movie. If i have to rate the movie on a 10 point scale i would give 8. Dont miss the movie buddies.I hope u like it too.

Terror came in Project semester

Our fun and merriment was ruined by one single person who came to our college during our project Semester.He is a PhD holder in the Field of Adhoc networks.Unfortunately he was the person who reviewed all our projects.Our Department students had a tough time with him.Most of our projects were rejected before we could even commence working on it.

Our reviews were so comical and amusing.He would deviate us from our topic of concern so wide that we would forget our stream.He would stop us at our title slide and go on and on and on.At the end when we realise that we havent told the objective of our project, our review would be over.

He will want us to tell all the numerical values properly .For instance if we specify the word bandwidth immediately he will raise the question , whats the bandwidth.I guess he is the fan of Vijaykanth having too much of a attachment for numbers.

We all call him "terror".

One big advantage is that we need not prepare much for any reviews as we wont talk much on it.Our reviews are basically nothing but technical chitchats.Among the team of lecturers and project guides he will be the only person to ask queries.He wont refrain from his motto of confusing the students even if he has no idea regarding that topic of discussion.Thats his greatest talent that we need to really appreciate.

Somehow we passed all the reviews with terror and completed our project succeccfully.

Our 7th semester rocks!!

A gang of nine girls screwed up the entire class.That's none other than our gang popularly called the navagraham gang.
Let me first introduce them one by one.

Aarthi
She appears to be silent but speaks out promptly whenever required.She is an introvert and you got to pull the words from her mouth if you are new to her.

Gayatri
She is very jovial and garrulous.She sings very well and has learnt carnatic music for more than ten years.She is smart as a whip.

Dhivya Raghuraman
We call her Lorry.Sure she will scold me for revealing this.She is sensitive, caring and benign.She is also gabby and a brainy damsel.

V.Divya
We call her genius ,padips and all adjectives related to brilliant.She is the topper of our Computer science department.

S.Durgalakshmi
Darga as we irritate her is jovial and fun to be with.

Charanya
Little mouse of our gang.But never judge her by her appearance and don't even have a thought that she eats less.

Deepa
She is a chatter box and has good dressing sense.

Archana
She is never serious.Always laughing and cracking jokes.I bet you cant listen to lectures if u r beside her.

Its me Divya adding to the list .

There are no bounds to our enjoyment in the classes.The most remarkable ones are during our 7th semester.We spent the entire semester playing cards especially UNO cards.From morning 8.45 till 4.30 it goes on.We wont even know what lecture hour is that and wont care to know too.










Apart from UNO we play Hollywood.Its a word game.You have to guess the word in 9 chances (equivalent to the number of letters in the word Hollywood).Then adding on to these we play puzzles ,number games and lots.Chitchats and gossips are incessant during lectures.

Our break time is our lunch time as we finish and relish all the dishes in no time.It would take just a minute or two to finish a tiffin box.Imagine so many hands in one .

As a spark our hustle and bustle had spread to the whole class and all of us started playing.We are proud that we screwed up the entire class .

India has won a gold medal in olympics!!!!!!!!!

India's Abhinav Bindra has won a gold in the air rifle event in Beijing. Bindra shot 104.5 to his total to 700.5 in the final. Bindra handled all the rounds carefully to reserve the berth.This is the first ever gold medal for India for an individual event .China and Finland won Silver and Bronze medals respectively.
We are happy that India has won a gold in Olympics but our duty doesn't end here.Just congratulating them on winning is not important.Whats utmost important is our constant support for them.

What our government has done to encourage them.Apart from cricket which has got the fullest recognition what other games are being promoted or sponsored.

Beside practice and hard work its only our support and encouragement that make the contestants win.Hope the concerned are aware of this and bring light to their future.

Congratulations Mrs.RAJI

All of us are tired , waiting for the Date of joining from most of the corporates. My friend Raji too is not an exception from that. The happiest part is that she got the DOJ from WIPRO but the pathetic moment is that its in the month of march. The fact adding salt to the injury is that her parents have started looking for a bridegroom as they cant tolerate her any longer.

All of us had gone to her house to console her but to our surprise she was in cloud nine . All set ready for a married life. We told her that we would take care of everything and arrange for the felicitations without any delay. So this is a personal invite to all her pals to be present for the occasion and make it a memorable one. She felt shy in disclosing this to everyone and thats y i am doing it.

Saina Nehwal progresses to quarter finals

India's Saina Nehwal and Anup Sridhar played authoritatively to progress in the badminton event on Sunday.Saina started slowly, gauging her opponent. She allowed six points in a row to her opponent to trail 10-13, but stepped up her game to win next five points to regain the momentum for a 15-13 lead.She picked up her momentum to eventually outplay her opponent in the second game.Lets keep our fingers crossed for their victory.

India struggling to save series against Sri Lanka

India will have to play out of their skin to save the third cricket Test as Sri Lanka reduced them to 161 for five in their second innings on the third day of the final cricket Test.

With the series squared at 1-1, the Sri Lankans gained a first innings lead of 147 and were comfortably on the safer side after running through India's top order at close of third day's play. India have a lead of just 14 runs and it is now up to the experienced pair of Rahul Dravid - and V.V.S Laxman - to pull India out of the rut.

The duo has forged many match-winning partnerships before and needs to come up with one such effort.

Dravid dropped at one end while Laxman, struggling with an ankle injury was on and has scored 50 from 135 balls.Laxman fighting to save the match despite ankle injury.Our Salute to him.

Corporates make us wait

After placements we all are happy to get into a software company.We are greatly relaxed for we have the job in hand.But after we have completed our course all the corporates make us sit at home for months awaiting call letters.
In this time span decisions change.We may also have a thought of searching for some other job.Higher studies dreams come before us when we are idle.These days make us lazy and less inquisitive.
The best option is to make the best use of the time we have either in refreshing what we studied these four years or in learning something new so that we can be more productive.
As the saying goes "An evil mind is the Devils' workshop", so never be idle in these days.Never switch to wrong options.
Try to equip yourself in the best way so that you can be utmost productive for the software company in which you have been recruited.

High School Memories

I am here to share some remarkable memories of my school days.I have wondered what a transformation in myself from school to college life.I have never talked to any guy in my school apart from passing on some information. We enjoy among ourselves.All school day celebrations went on the same way.Even in our farewell we were the same.Only now i got the opportunity to talk with many guys who were my school mates.Only now i realise how we had dragged the school days missing their friendship.Even now i wonder how those days passed by.Last year of my school was so hectic with a strict time-table.Early morning maths tuition classes.Then school and then Arul Institute classes for Physics and chemistry.Evening daily lessons,record work ,preparation for class tests and so on.We never rest even in the weekends.TNPCEE classes in the week ends.I wonder whether it was me who strained so much.
I really feel i have missed the enjoyment with my school mates during school days.Now i have contacts with many of my school mates.It would be great if those school days come back now.Childish plays and talks are something very special.

Olympics 2008

A dazzling first day at Beijing 2008 got off to a storming start.Athletes' long march begins in Beijing's bird's nest.


Dancers perform on a giant illuminated globe.
Fireworks explode over China's National Stadium also known as the "Bird's Nest."
It was a great start to Beijing Olympics, the fireworks that decorated the sky made every one to wonder and its the best sky works that ever made on history of Olympics. Many world leaders congratulated China for its fantastic opening of 2008 Olympics.
Performers light up their drums during the Opening Ceremony.

My holiday trip

Not a big gang .Not a great tourist spot.But the enjoyment we 3(myself, Dhivya Raghuraman and Aarthi) had in the trip was incomparable even with a big gang or a great spot.On 15th july we started to tenkasi to aarthi's place where we had a royal treatment .Morning tiffin was like we were in a marriage .Even to the next street we went in their new car.After a heavy breakfast we saw Dasavatharam movie and started to the Cutralam falls .

We had so much fun there.For contiously 30 minutes we had permission to enjoy in the falls.
The next day too we went to five falls and old cutralam.Then aarthi had a huge farm full of cocconut, mango,gooseberry trees.We took snaps and had coconut water and roamed there the whole day.
We tried climbing over a mango branch and it was utter comedy.Then we all went to theatre and saw Subramaniapuram movie.
Aarthi's house was so beautiful and spacious.We never wanted to come back from her place actually.Its a duplex apartment with beautiful garden .


Fantastic outings ,movie,superb house,delicious food and ofcourse being with her was so enjoyable .We decided to plan more trips like this in the days to come.

College friends

I have to say i am so lucky to get precious friends in my college life.From first year till the last we have all enjoyed and had great fun together.Elliots beach outings ,movie,T.Nagar shopping and visit to Mansukh's restaurant,chatting at home in the name of combine studies,getting ODs for other college symposium for cutting classes,10 hands in one tiffin box,playing UNO during class lectures,playing word games and number games unnoticed,movie discussions,rumours,and lots more.
During exams we always study together and finish it off soon and start our usual job of chatting.Even during lab sessions we never do any sort of programming.Its only one girls' job and we all copy paste it.
All of us always eat together and enjoy.I really miss those days now.There is an alumni meet conducted by our college and i am looking forward to meet all of my friends again and refresh all memories.

first day in college

School days will be most enjoyable and memorable for many.But for me its the other way round.I enjoyed my college life from day one.There were no one from my school in Easwari engineering college and i was so much worried the first day. Thoughts about ragging and stuff was still more scary.
First day so tensed waiting in chromepet bus stop for Route no 1 .To add to the situation i was waiting at the wrong place.When the bus crossed me was baffled and somehow stopped the bus and got in it.All their eyes were on me.Even now my friends make fun of me with that incident.Then after sometime i was cool and looking at everyone wondering who were my seniors .
We had the function and touring on the campus for the first day.The Auditorium was full of first year students.Lukily whom i saw in the bus were sitting with me.I interacted with everyone and we had so much fun the whole day.By the end of the day we bacame good friends.I was very happy i had got so many friends the first day itself.But the next day the first years were separated into 8 sections and none of my friends were in my section.
I enjoyed looking back at these memories and sharing it here with everyone.

Nearly 150 die in stampede at Indian temple

Nearly 150 pilgrims, many of them children, were trampled to death on a hillside in northern India on Sunday morning, after rumors of a landslide fueled a stampede.
How cruel isnt it?

whats special abt 08/08/08?

The august month is always considered to be auspecious.But this year the demand has been more.This catchy date indeed is yet to come. And u know wats special reg this date 8th august ?Just a week more and the applications for marriage on that date are piling up in thousands in America.People run crazy after the date of their marriage rather than the concerned person. Interesting isnt it?

Info for 2008 candidates placed in TCS

We heard that once health check up and address verification is done by TCS for their employees,they send a be ready mail.Colleges which have received that mail can expect their call soon.There is a Toll free number specified in the offer letter provided to the candidates.Candidates can call that number for enquiry regarding when they will be called and for mail updates.Hope this information is not a rumour.Just conveying the information which i received.
Thanks all.