Module 5

The lessons learned from Friedman's “The World is Flat,” are starting to blossom before my very eyes! A couple days ago I got into a deep discussion about Google, the flattening of the world, and yes, outsourcing, with one of my friends who had just acquired a tech-support job for Google. I was amazed at his use of terminology as he used the words “outsourcing” and “flattening”. I admit when I first started reading, “The World is Flat”, I was under the impression that, Friedman did know what he was talking about, I just assumed he was making up some of the terminology he uses in. Due to my conversation with my friend I am now 100% of Friedman's validity. I admit I dread reading this book, however I have learned so much from it. I truly a have a deeper understanding and appreciation of globalization, and I can better play my newly founded knowledge to my advantage. I feel as if I have intellectual property that I can offer the world. I feel the world is my oyster, and because of this boring book I can now operate on the worlds platform with less friction and more innovation then I ever could.

Triple Convergence this the three major processes/events that happened during a short period of time to make what Friedman calls globalization 3.0. The first convergence, happened slowly. This convergence was actully the realization of the new possibilities that came with the new technology. When computers first came out, there was not much of an improvement in efficiency within companies. These companies had yet learned to adapt, and make most of what was available to them. Companies were still thinking vertically, and every dept. within a company was a sub-company all to themselves.

The second convergence was the adaptation; a new way of thinking, so that the world could take advantage of the resources they had. Companies started to think more horizontally, and could connect better within themselves and the rest of the world. People began to use flow soft-ware technologies to be more efficient. The worlds ten flatters finally were starting to complement themselves.

The third convergence is the addition of the rest of the world to the worlds flatting platform known as the internet. It is the ability for just about everyone in the world to be able to put there ideas and innovations out for the whole world to see and converge on. It seems to me that this kind of power can solve just about any problem. While this is a good thing, us Americans should take note of accomplishments set by other individuals in different countries. Many parts of the world; India, China, and Russia just to name a few, have had people who come from different rich educational heritages. These people are born to this world with the great self-desire and motivation to learn. However, in the past these people have been hindered by their own governments and were unable to freely market themselves or their ideas. This is no longer the case, and now that these extremely smart individuals have the ability to communicate and collaborate with anybody or anything at any given moment, puts pressure on us Americans to improve our own education. We DO NOT want to fall behind in our own game. I find it crazy to think that China, just couple years ago, was a closed market society and its government shun their citizens from some of the glories of the internet and its precious gifts. Now, China has more cell phones in use then the number of people in America. Talk about learning to think horizontally quickly!

Reading more about the India vs. Indiana part of this module I come to conclude that neither Indiana nor India had exploited each other. They exploited themselves. As I have fore mentioned, India had all these highly talented, and computer/science savvy persons, while their own country hid them from the world The end result was that these smart individuals were taking taxi cap driving positions and other odd jobs that they were clearly over qualified for.

Indiana exploited themselves because there own government had the inability account for the future of things. The Indianian government was so blinded by the fact that jobs were being lost to people who weren't even Americans, that they didn't think of the consequences of their own actions. That state lost 8.1 million dollars in tax money that could have easily went to build schools or other governmental agencies that would have in turn provided more jobs then the ones lost due to outsourcing. But, the biggest kicker of this whole fiasco is that the jobs that Indiana did save, more then likely only helped the rich get richer. There is a great deal of sorting out to be done in our own home country. People need to learn the true meaning of outsourcing and understand that a world exists beyond what they see.

Finally, intellectual property is the creations, thoughts or ideas of someones mind. Some of the worlds finest innovations have come someones intellectual property. The debate is, however, how much reward should one  reap of of their ideas or work? Individuals should be rewarded for their hard work or ideas. But, how can their intellectual property be collaborated on and refined to perfection if that person is unwilling to share his/her idea? Think about Volvo, the car company that is famous for its safety innovations. I remember reading a couple years ago that Volvo had come out with some highly sophisticated safety mechanisms for cars. Sure, they could have patented that and make money on it, but they thought that this type of intellectual property should be shared to keep everyone safe. So they let other car makers in on there innovations for free. In a nutshell this is a moral issue, and its not shared mutually across the world.

Another thought I have on the subject of intellectual property would be the whole Metallica-Kazaa ordeal. I love Metallica! I also believe Metallica should be paid for their talent, yet I have downloaded most of their albums for free. So am I a thief? Am I immoral? A lot of people would say that I am. However, these same people listen to anything they want on youtube or other sites without paying a dime. So aren't these people thieves and immoral as well? If you want to get right down to it, the world is so flat it doesn't matter if I'm listening to music streaming from my hard drive or music streaming from somewhere in cyberspace, point is we are ALL accessing the same intellectual property, for free.