heidicoulter

Book Report #3 "The World Is Flat" (pgs 227-571)

2007-06-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

This report will discuss Friedman's chapters 4 -15 which focus on: The Great Sorting Out-which rounds up How the World Became Flat, then moves on to discuss America and the Flat World, Developing Countries and the Flat World, Companies and the Flat World, Geopolitics and the Flat World, & the Conclusion: Imagination.

The Great Sorting Out
Friedman credits Karl Marx with foreshadowing flatteners that would make it possible for the world to expedience a global market. Marx wrote that nations would be pressured because of the Indrustrial Revolution to produce and consume as part of becoming part of "civilisation" Friedman discusses the fact that the flatteners have been good for business but bad for communities "nonmarket values like social cohesion, religious faith, and national pride." And he ask, "To what extent should we stand aside, 'get with the program,' and do all we can to squeeze out yet more inefficiencies...?"(pgs. 234-237) Some people are excited as they see the "opportunities," some are anxious as they fear change and losing jobs and a sense of community and networks such as al Qaeda. Whether they are excited or anxious, they are all stressed.

Are we exploiting cheap labor, empowering individuals, or putting Americans out of work. Friedman ask "who is exploiter and who is exploited?.(pgs. 237-240) Who are companies loyal to? Answer- their stockholders. They will go to the cheapest, most efficient suppliers & labor. Friedman uses Wal-Mart as an example. They are good for the consumer but bad for the employee. But are they really good for the consumer? The consumer wants them to be "relentless" in keeping it's prices low but "American taxpayers chip in to pay for many full-time Wal-Mart employees because they usually require incremental health insurance, public housing, [and] food stamps. So is the consumer really saving money if their tax dollars are going to support Wal-Marts employees? "...when you totally flatten your supply chain, you also take a certain element of humanity out of life."(pgs. 242-252)

America and Free Trade
Friedman goes on to say that while America is losing it's most of it's low-skilled and blue college jobs to overseas all is not lost. He suggests that there will be a new middle class job pool will be created for Americans to choose from but these jobs will be "idea" jobs, "specialty" jobs and will require college degrees. "The Indians and the Chinese are ...racing us to the top-and that is a good thing!" A good thing for everyone except the low-skilled Americans.(pgs. 261-270)

The Untouchables
"There will be plenty of good jobs out there...for people with the right knowledge, skills, ideas, ...self motivation, and passion for what [they] do...finish your homework-people in China are starving for your jobs...make yourself an untouchable- people whose jobs cannot be outsourced, digitized, or automated...be a celebrity, an engineer, a scientist, provide a specialized service, or be a great collaborator & orchestrator, a synthesizer, an explainer, a great adapter, discover/create renewable energies and environmentally sustainable systems, be a passionate personalizer (take a vanilla task...[add your] own chocolate sauce...) a great localizer (the freelancer who finds a way to use a satellite dish, a DSL line, a Blackberry, a PC, or some new software to become a book editor or a film editor or an eBay entrepreneur from his or her bedroom)...an idea man."(pgs. 276-300)

Book Report 2 "The World is Flat" (pgs 113-226)

2007-05-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

This report will continue discussing the 10 forces which Friedman claims in his book have "flattened" the world. Book report 1 discussed forces 1-4. This report will conclude the discussion on flattener #4 and then discuss forces 5-10, as well as, what Friedman calls "The Triple Convergence".
Community developed software led to "community-developed answers" such as; using software and databases to mine for gold virtually, to run political campaigns & fundraisers. Next came blogging and Wikipedia. A blog is "your own personal virtual soapbox."(pg 118) "No one is in charge, standards of practice vary widely, and some of it is downright irresponsible...information flows with total freedom."(pg 118) Now we have pod casting, the audio version of blogging. Wikipedia, the user contributed online encyclopedia which is not always correct & encourages large corporations to monitor information about their companies checking for accuracy.
Flattener #5, Outsourcing Y2K. One of India's greatest resources is it's young people graduating with engineering, computer science & software degrees. They used to be eager to come to America for jobs. Now they are eager to stay in India because the jobs in America are coming to them thanks to the Global Crossing of fiber optics. With the Y2K bug, the world needed a surplus of software engineers to adjust the existing computer's internal clocks & related systems. The world went to India.
China was next when MIT realized it could pay 4 Chinese engineers for the price of 1 American.
#6 Offshoring- "is when a company takes one of it's factories that is operating in Canton, Ohio, and moves the whole factory to Canton, China."(pg. 137) China is hungry. It has lots of graduates willing to work long hours for low pay. They've got the "entrepreneurial zeal to do whatever it takes to please big retailers such as Wal Mart Stores, Target, Best Buy, and J.C. Penny." (pg.141) China's "long-term strategy is to outrace America."(pg. 142) Should Americans be worried? Friedman is convinced "the world will ...[be] more prosperous than ever." He states, "three United States are better than one, and five would be better than three."(pg. 150)
#7 Supply-chaining. Friedman declares Wal Mart the most impressive supply chain, "a hyper efficient" supply chain that has perfected coordinating distribution & supply & demand all while underselling the competition. They, however, are not without criticism from Friedman "whatever social benefits it is offering with one hand, it is taking with the other."(pg. 163)
#8 Insourcing- The "small could act big" UPS doesn't just deliver packages anymore. In many cases they "fill the order, bag it, label it, and deliver it to you."(pg. 169) They also fix computers, dispatch truck drivers for other companies, conduct packaging seminars, design software, collect payments for other companies, employ meteorologists & strategic threat analysts, and maintain their own think tank.
#9 In-Forming- Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search, iPod and TiVo happened. "It is a total equalizer."(pg. 178) Everything and anything anyone anywhere in the world wanted to know-"all the world's knowledge at their fingertips."(pg. 178) This also allows anyone to collaborate with anyone else anywhere in the world-good or evil. Friedman warns, "live your life honestly...whatever mistakes you make, will be searchable one day."(pg. 185)
#10 The Steroids Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual..."they are amplifying and turbocharging all the other flatteners."(pg. 188) Soon we will have superfast chips with the capacity to "transmit all the printed material in the world in minutes in a single cable."(pg. 191) We already have instant messaging, file sharing, VoIP-phone calls over the Internet, and videoconferencing. It has created "the age of the 'mobile me.'"(pg. 196) Speaking of mobile in Japan you can get a "mobile phone [with] a smart card" meaning your cell phone is also your credit card.(pg. 197) I used to think Star Trek was science fiction now I read in Friedman's book that "Rolls Royce engines...can track anomalies in it's engines while they are in operation."(pg. 199) But even the crew of Star Trek had it's evildoers to contend with as do we with online sexual predators, mindless phone games engrossing our youth, using phone cameras for "illicit activities," not to mention groups like alQaeda.
The Triple Convergence-#1- all the 10 flatterers working together that helped level the playing field for businesses and individuals, #2- the expected boost in productivity from computers finally was happening and at record speed., #3- "The Berlin Wall came down, [and] the Berlin Mall opened up."(pg. 212) Suddenly we have twice the players on the field (which is flat-equalized) and the new players are ready run fast, play hard and go for the gold.

Book Report 1: "The World is Flat" (pgs. 1-112)

2007-05-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman describes the rise of the technological age ("while [he] was sleeping") that has connected the entire world and simultaneously "flattening" it. Friedman tells of a drone flying in Iraq being manipulated by an Air Forceman in Las Vegas, Nevada. I think people expect the military to have advanced technology like this. They don't expect everyone and/or just anyone to have it, yet, according to Friedman this is where we're headed-if were not already there. "...we are entering a phase where more people than ever before in the history of the world are going to have access to these tools [digitization, virtualization, and automation]...even terrorists."(pg. 47)
His goal is make us aware and says we must ask ourselves,"Where do I as an individual fit into the global competition and opportunities of the day, and how can I, on my own, collaborate with others globally."(pg. 11) It's the time to get on board or be left behind, "individuals from every corner of the flat world are being empowered."(pg. 11) As now outsourcing and homesourcing are replacing many service jobs including; McDonald's drive-thru orders, call-centers, tax returns, reading CAT scans, personal assistants on the other side of the world that can create your Power Point presentations and more working while you're sleeping, and e-tutoring just to name a few. Friedman states, "if you are an American you better be good at the touchy-feely service stuff, because anything that can be digitized can be outsourced to either the smartest or the cheapest producer, or both."(pg. 15)
Friedman discusses 10 forces that flattened the world. This report will cover the first four; #1 11/9/89-the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of windows. #2 8/9/95- The day Netscape went public and people stared surfing the Web. Netscape, "made the Internet accessible to everyone from five-year-olds to ninety-five year-olds."(pg. 62) This led to the dot-com stock bubble and massive over investment in fiber-optic cable., #3 Work Flow Software-which enables "more people in more places to design, display, manage, and collaborate on business data previously handled manually."(pg. 78), #4 Uploading- Programs and software began to be designed that was interoperable. Computer geeks started creating/building on old software (community developed software) and making it available to the public for free. Virtual companies are now possible for anyone. Everyone has been empowered and freed "from the grip of global corporations."(pg. 105)

2007-05-07T15:11:00.001-07:00

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