<SYSTEM_TASK:>
Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
<END_TASK>
<USER_TASK:>
Description:
 def _asString(self, value):
 """converts the value as a string"""

        if sys.version_info[0] == 3:
            if isinstance(value, str):
                return value
            elif isinstance(value, bytes):
                return value.decode('utf-8')
        elif sys.version_info[0] == 2:
            return value.encode('ascii')