Module 5

            It is amazing that through the process of combining all the flatteners together we were able to make things even more accessible. The triple convergence allowed for easier convenience for both the company and the costumers. The first convergence allowed for costumers and companies to work hand in hand because of the availability of computers, bandwidth and know-how. Southwest and Konica were two of the first companies to take advantage of this. The second convergence was the platform, since we had now made an equal playing field, or a flat platform, it made it allowed for companies to not only do business the old way, but also find new ways to do business with their customers.  This breakthrough is what gave Wal-Mart the ability to communicate with their shippers across seas to make sure that they were able to keep up with the demand of their customers. The third convergence was getting the whole world involved. Once the Berlin Wall came down it allowed for even more people to become part of the flat world. All the new technologies were now available all over the world, making it a more level playing field for companies and people everywhere.

            The case of India vs. Indiana is very interesting and I don’t think there is a clear black and white answer to who is being exploited and who is doing the exploiting. I think that both sides were taking advantage of each other. It is definitely comical to me though that the state’s employment center was accepting work from outside the United States. By taking advantage of the lower costs of India they were benefiting themselves and hurting themselves all at the same time. I believe that India was definitely taking advantage of the skills that they had been taught and would do whatever they could to bring the work to them, because what good is their education if they aren’t able to use it. Unfortuantely I think this same sort of thing is happening all over still between states and outsourcing. It is hard to provide the adequate products at reasonable prices here in the United States because of the costs, but then again we are giving away work that could be helping out those in our country.

            Intellectual property are the things that people think of to help better the country. They are ideas and inventions that are used to make advances in society. It is hard to say though who can own what and who has to share ideas. If all intellectual property was kept to oneself we wouldn’t be able to make all the advances that we have thus far. I think that it is important that we allow some things to be kept to oneself because I think that sometimes it forces us to think of newer, better ways to solve problems then just already accept a solution that has already been found. I think that is important that people are compensated for their intellectual property if they have to share and disclose it otherwise there would be no incentive for them to keep progressing and making things easier. People wouldn’t care to work hard to find a better way if they weren’t being rewarded for it. 

Module 4

For the assignment this week I decided to contact my wife’s uncle. He is a computer programmer for a local school district. He has been working this job for over 10 years, and over time it has become more and more demanding. Now that all of the schools that he works with have a wider access to computers and more per facility he is kept a lot busier. His job requires a lot of knowledge, many things which were above my head when he was explaining them. He is responsible to make that sure all the correct programs are installed on the computers and he also make sure that they all have filters installed so that the kids can’t go onto websites that aren’t allowed. Not only is he responsible for keeping the portable computers working so that every class can use them when needs be, but he assists the teachers when they are having problems with their computers.

In order to stay on top of all the new programs and running systems he is required to take a couple classes each year, to learn all the new improvements, that way he can stay on top of them so he is able to help with the new problems. Through all his experience he has learned the ins and outs of the computers and what kind of memory, processor and such is necessary to run the programs that are needed for the school.

Not only does he make sure that that computers are working properly but he also teaches the kids and teachers how to use them appropriately. At the beginning of the year he teaches classes that show how to do the simple things that are needed to know in order to complete assignments for the year.

There were a lot of things that he talked about with their system for the district, where they have programs that allow the teachers to access the same documents so that they are able to adjust them for their own schedules and assignments but all have the same format. He is also responsible to help keep their emails all linked and working which is how they easily share documents with the other teachers.

Although to him he thinks his job is pretty basic and easy to do, to the average Joe like me it is not so easy. I am like one of the students that he teaches how to do the basics on the computer so that you are able to get your work done. I can’t do a whole lot beyond opening up a word document and typing what I need, and since starting college I have learned to submit an assignment online. I am so grateful that there are people that are able to program computers in order to keep them working for people like me. 

Module 3

            The world is still flattening. It is hard to believe that all of these different influences played a part in creating a more balanced world.

            The first part of this section deals with offshoring. Offshoring is a great deal different that outsourcing. When companies outsource it just means that they take on aspect of their company and send it overseas to have another company take care of it. When companies offshore it means they actually take part of their company, like a factory or a warehouse, and send it overseas to be run in another country. By spreading companies to other countries it has created a more equal playing field for companies to grow globally. I understand the offshoring is important to businesses because then companies often times can afford things that the otherwise wouldn’t be able to here in the United States, which allows form improvement of products. Although offshoring has its advantages I think that often times there are disadvantages as well. Companies often times get a “good deal” so some things use the quality that they could have and it also takes jobs away from people in the United States. It would be great if we could find a way to keep things affordable and keep them more local.

            Thomas L. Friedman was able to witness Wal-Mart’s supply chaining first hand. As he called it is was like a Wal-Mart river flowing boxes and boxes down conveyor belts to waiting truck, after waiting truck. Wal-Mart uses scanners that as items are being bought they are already being scanned and boxed to be sent back to the store, so that they can make sure that they aren’t out of stock of the items. It actually really set in that supply chaining is a big deal when Friedman said “Wal-Mart is the biggest retail company in the world, and it does not make a single thing.” Wal-Mart has just created a very successful supply chain management. Supply chaining has allowed companies to find the best deal out there and sell it in their store for the lowest price. Since they don’t have to rely on their own manufacturing companies like Wal-Mart can search all over the world for the lowest price and then ship it to their store. I am personally grateful for the development of supply chaining because I know that I can find great deals at nearby stores because the companies are doing the work in finding cheaper products.

            The last topic was about In-forming. Which deals with search engines, which I am sure almost every person uses something like Google, Yahoo or other search engines every time they are on the internet. Google has allowed us to look up topics or types of businesses right from home. We can immediately find out all about the company from a click of a button. I think that google has really helped businesses become better known, since you can look up businesses locally or globally. Google allows you to find that small specialized business when you have a specific need. Search engines, like Google, aren’t always good for businesses since other companies can pay to be at the top of the search as a way of advertising and most people don’t look beyond the first page of their search. I think that Google has been a great resource for large companies and quite possibly a hindrance for small companies.

            As I continue to read this book it is astonishing to me how many of these factors actually play a big role in my day to day life. I didn’t realize that all of these “flatteners” actually effected my own personal life, as I realize these things it makes me realize more and more that just as Friedman says, “the world is flat”.

Module 2

               
                As I continued to read The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman, I learned how some many things that I never thought about continued to make the world a more equal playing field. A lot of things in these sections were harder for me to completely grasp the ideas, since they were a lot more in depth about programming on computers.

                One of the things that contributing to the flattening was work flow software. This is what standardized computers and the way they communicated. It was allowed for people to work on the same projects from all over. It allowed for different individuals and even different companies to access the same information. My wife currently works in a job where she works from two different computers, one at the office and one at home, because of work flow software she is able to transport files back and forth from the two computers, even though they don’t run the same exact programs. I guess what was most shocking about the idea of work flow software was the fact that I never knew it was any different that it is today. I didn’t realize all the complications that there was when it came to sharing information, files and company information. It is insane the amount of programs that we have allowed to communicate with one another and work hand in hand.

                The next “flattener” open source software has also made it so that we have found many new advances due to the contribution of many people. These software programs allow people from all over to tap into them and edit them. They are allowed to make improvements or find problems. Someone writes a code that allows the program to run as they want. Another aspect that plays a part with the codes written for software programs are hackers, they developed a community where they would go in and change programs and share their ways. Most of this really goes above my head to be honest, I do not fully understand about computers and codes and the interworking’s that there are, I just want my computer to work when I want it to. I am grateful that there are people that have developed such programs so that I am able to do everything that I am able to from the convenience of my living room couch.

                The last section was on outsourcing, which is when companies outsource their jobs to other country, the biggest being India. Through the internet and programming companies are able to share information across seas. It was amazing to me that in the book they said that often times in other countries there are many companies that work out of one large room. Since the companies aren’t stationed there they don’t need a fancy office, so often times they cram as many individuals in the office as possible and have them working for multiple companies depending on the part of the room that they are assigned to. I think that outsourcing has provided companies a cheaper way to run businesses. A lot of companies are also able to have extended hours of customer service when they outsource to other countries. Personally, I see the advantages for companies to outsource, but sometimes as a consumer it can be very frustrating. They don’t always understand completely how the problems that you are having because sometimes there is a gap in the understanding of the company that they work for.

                This section of the book was a little harder to completely comprehend, but I still think it helped to open my eyes to all the interworking’s of companies and all the things that they are constantly doing to make sure that we are still advancing.

                

Module 1

Before starting to read this book I hadn't really put much thought into the accessibility and the progress that technology as made in such a short period of time. Since I have been old enough to really use the internet it seems as though it was always easy to access and use, but I never thought about how this creates an equal playing field for everyone as individuals.  

            I quickly realized what changes had occurred in such a short period of time with the internet, making the world an entirely different place, or as Thomas Friedman says makes the world flat. It was interesting to read about all the different steps to globalization. Friedman breaks it down into three different version: 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. The first version, 1.0, is what as Friedman says brought the world from “large to medium”, which allowed for globalization of countries and allowed them to try and figure out their place and purpose in the process of globalization. Then came along globalization 2.0 which then took the world from “medium to small” and the focus shifted from countries as a whole to companies. This era lasted in Friedman’s opinion from 1800 to 2000. There was a more widespread use of telephones, PCs, satellites and many more technological advances that allowed for growth among businesses and a global economy.  Then zoom ahead to now, where we are currently a part of globalization 3.0, which now allows individuals to focus on their part and compete globally. Friedman explains that this is what he calls the flat-world platform, which because of personal computers and internet is allowing individuals to be more empowered and enabled to connect as a whole globe. It is amazing that throughout the process of globalization you can already see the influence that it has on the world as a whole, since globalization 1.0 and 2.0 were dominated by Europeans and Americans, and now 3.0 is reaching out to all parts of the world. With globalization 3.0 taking part it is allowing for people from all different walks of life to participate.

In his book, The World is Flat, Friedman discusses the different the forces he believes to have caused the world to become flat. One of the first things that occurred that Friedman believes to help begin the world to flatten was the falling down of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The wall was a divide between the two parts of the country that was able to be seen by the eyes. As soon as the wall fell, it immediately forced them to become one, there was no longer anything separating them. This began the idea of the world uniting in economic standards. It started to tilt people’s ideals away from the Communist and capitalist ways to a more democratic and free-market oriented economy. This all helped to allow the spread of telephones and the computer for a more open way of information and communication. It became harder to keep the nations separate in ideas.

Another event that allowed to for a more equal playing field among individuals was the development and releasing of Netscape. Before Netscape there wasn't a simple way to explore the internet, but after it became accessible to individuals it allowed for people to easily access the internet and explore all sorts of things. Friedman explains that Netscape made it so easy to access the internet that anyone from 5 to 95 years old could use it efficiently. Netscape was easy to download to the growing number of personal computers, making it usable by people of all different lifestyles. Netscape is what started the growth of internet exploring applications, although they eventually were put out by Microsoft’s creation of Internet Explorer, Netscape is what started the popular, easy to explore internet.

Although I have only read a fraction of Friedman’s The World is Flat, I can already see how there are some many different things that took place allowing for each of us to be able to easily use technology and make individuals competitive as a whole. I never realized how easily every one is able to compete thanks to the easy accessibility of the internet.