The world is flat

Professor Lawson

Management Information Systems

The world is flat: Significant flattener paper

It wasn’t until Tom Friedman’s trip to India where he had discovered the meaning behind the world is flat. Which he used for the main focus point of his book “The World is Flat”. When he discovered this theory on the world is flat he was in India. He was in India because that was the new designated location for him and his employees to write one of their new documentaries. The documentary they had set out to India to write about was how the Indian working people strive to be like our American workers along with the main focus on the olive tree war. Setting out overseas to India for this documentary was post September 11. It was in India because they are the main place for outsourcing.

It was with a meeting with the CEO if Infasis, which is the Microsoft of India that Tom first came across the global economic economy field, is being leveled. The interview with the CEO took place eleven days after his multiple interviews with Indian workers in Bungalow. The CEO informed Tom that his view on the reason for his reactions towards the how the Indian workers want to be like American workers was in his words “the world is flattening”. Tom quickly wrote this down and thrived off the CEO words, and quickly had many views on how the man’s words were true.

Tom Friedman’s vision for people was clear to understand if you weren’t prepared because of the global economic economy field being leveled then you will be left behind and in the dark. Tom knows that our current world and economy is moving far too fast for many individuals to keep up with. Friedman’s views of globalization are a great attempt at explaining and understanding the driving forces which are causing the world to become flatten. Tom also sees possibilities that would slow down the flatting of the world which would be more time for people to keep up with the global economy; this would be a possible threat from a terrorist group such as Taliban.

Netscape goes public

In Tom Freidman’s book The World is Flat he goes into depth on how the world has gone through three stages and now on the third and final stage the competition is now on a level field for everyone. This means that anyone in the world has the same advantages and opportunities you have when it comes to competition in the economy. This makes competition all so much higher now, leading to new and creative ways at trying to succeed. In the first era which was from 1942 to 1800 and the most successful counties were the ones with the most “muscle”, the ones with the most horse power, steam power, and wind power. The second era was different from the first, the companies with the ability to have their headquarters in one country but still operated in others were the ones that were most successful. During this era there were two parts to it, the first half was the ones that had the most efficient transportation were the ones to succeed while in the second it changed to whoever had the best means of telecommunication. This started the third era where the competition was leveled off and where everyone had the same opportunities to succeed.

In the book Freidman goes into detail on how there are ten “flatteners” to the competition. In my opinion I believe Netscape going public on August 9, 1995 was the most important flattener out of them all. Netscape had changed the way the whole world functions that day in where everyone has the opportunity to upload, outsource, telecommunicate through instant messaging and much more at anytime of the day. This gave everyone the same opportunity to use the internet which is no different than the next person to use it to their advantage. It had finally broken all competitive barriers that were being taken place.

Flatteners

Rob Kiwanis

11/13/11

Professor Flurry-Lawson

Flatteners

There are 10 of Friedman’s flatteners that we all know of. The flattener that I found was the most significant to me was Netscape goes public on August 9, 1995. The reason that I believe this is the most significant flattener is because in today’s society everyone in the world uses the Internet. People may use the Internet to do research, look up news, do their job, look at porn, or just waste time. No matter what people just the Internet for it has changed our world so dramatically that we would never be able to live without it again.

Without Netscape going public we might not be at the point that we are at today. I think that everyone will agree to the fact that the world is a lot better with the Internet. Without Internet we would not even be able to do this homework assignment and put it on blogger. That would not be a good thing either because we all are trying to learn and leave Nichols with a great education.

Imagine how the world would still be operating if there was no Internet. People’s lives would be so much different than they are today. Peoples jobs would be a lot harder then they are now because the lack of networking and being able to get in touch with other people.

The way people and businesses market and promote through facebook and other sites would not be able to happen. Netscape has changed our entire world. Put us in a whole new environment.

People take the Internet for granted because now everyone has access to it and because it makes it so easy to look something up on a computer or even a Smartphone. We never were able to have videoconferences with people in other countries or areas. This is a great benefit for companies and people who have families who do not live close to one another. We can stay in touch with people that we would never stay in touch if the Internet were not ever invented.

The internet changed our lives for the best and I would never want to go back to the ways without it.

Uploading

In Tom Freidman's book "The World is Flat", he speaks about the world being flat in the sense that the competitive playing field is leveled. Globalization's three stages overtime has developed society into what it has turned into today. He also speaks of there being ten flatteners of how the world was developed. One of the most important flatteners mentioned is the uploading flattener. It speaks about how you can upload anything onto the web for anybody to view. People have to be very careful what they post onto the internet in this time era because technology has made it possible to access private information that shouldnt be displayed to the public. For example, online banking has made it possible for you to view your account information through the internet. This tool is very vulnerable for people to commit identity fraud and steal people's money with no clue how it was done. This changed a lot of companies strategies in the way they handle business. People in this day and age can post just about anything they want onto the internet. If you want to learn how to do something, you can just go on a search engine and find numerous websites with regards to what you are looking for. Another example is the website youtube, where you can view videos uploaded to the internet for millions of viewers to see. This could have been single handedly one of the most important things to ever happen to the development of society. This has made the world completely connected with each other at all times. Websites like Yahoo and MSN upload new information onto their websites for the world to see as soon as it happens. It also keeps people up to date with each other. If the world keeps uploading new found information onto the internet, then society will be able to constantly develop and advance faster and faster as time goes on.

Flat World

Tom speaks about the world being flat because driving flat is easier then going up hills, so he states that the internet is a huge flatter because it tends to make the world way easier then past life. Which i feel is so true because the internet it's self have came a long way from dail up internet service to high speed internet.Now of days four year-olds and up are accessing the internet and know how to blog, work social media, social network and surf the web. So I feel the biggest flatter he speaks about is how netscape, the reason why is because Netscape was the first browser to give the world access to the internet. The second thing Netscape did was open connect interface and trigger the internet boom, all this started our age of technology because without this first sight of internet browsing their would not have been competitors for this market like Firefox and Explorer. Without such technology as web browsers things like social networking and search sites would have never been created, so no Facebook,Twitter and Myspace and Google I feel like without these main sites the world would not be as flat and easy.

Netscape Goes Public

The most significant flattener from Thomas Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat,” is the introduction of Netscape to the public. Netscape is a computer services company located in the United States, and is responsible for creating a once-dominant web browser.

Netscape was “the second company to attempt to capitalize on the World Wide Web.” They advertised that “the web is for everyone” and stated that one of its goals was to “level the playing field” among operating systems. Netscape was successful in doing so, and ultimately opened the floodgates to a series of innovative developments.

In a lecture regarding his book, Thomas Friedman was quoted as saying “Netscape brought the internet browser alive” (“The World is Flat”). Ordinary people were now able to access information in the form of documents, graphics, and the like from various sources.

Netscape was also responsible for commercializing open transmission protocols for the internet. In essence, these protocols prohibited any one company from dominating the internet. As a result, internet-usage became much more interconnected. In his lecture, Friedman uses the example of a husband and a wife—one who was using CompuServe for e-mail, the other using AOL. At this point in time, communication was difficult. However, when Netscape went public, these walls were essentially “knocked down,” and communication became much simpler and much more convenient (“The World is Flat”).

Lastly, Netscape was responsible for what became known as the “dot com boom.” The so called “boom” happened when trillions of dollars were invested in fiber-optic cables. In brief, these cables connected people in the United States with people in foreign countries. As Friedman said in his lecture, we virtually “became next-door neighbors overnight.” Additionally, this also made communication less costly for millions of people. Instead of communicating by mail or telephone and paying a fee, people were now able to connect with one another through the internet. In fact, it is safe to say that communication became “free” (“The World is Flat”).

Although Netscape brought the internet to life and contributed to our technological advancement, it is the most significant flattener for one reason: it eventually led to Friedman’s eight additional flatteners. These flatteners include the development of work-flow software, uploading, outsourcing, off-shoring, supply chaining, insourcing, informing, and “The Steroids.” Each of these flatteners would contribute to the globalization and “leveling-out” of our society.

Source:
Lecture: “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53vLQnuV9FY

In-forming

Thomas Friedman wrote a book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. This book is about “ten flatteners,” that analyzes globalization. The ten flatteners are: the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Netscape, Workflow Software, Uploading, Outsourcing, Offshoring, Supply-chaining, Insourcing, In-forming, and “The Steroids.” I believe the most significant flattener is In-forming.
In-forming is people’s ability to find information so easily online. For example: Google and Wikipedia. Friedman wrote “Never before in the history of the planet have so many people- on their own- had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people.” Now people can just go on their computers every time they have a question about anything, and they will be able to get the answer within minutes. Google, for example, had 150 million searches per day three years ago, now it has roughly one billion searches per day. That is a huge jump for just three years. Technology is moving forward at a very fast pace, who knows where we will be in the next ten years.

This advancement not only has an impact on people’s personal lives, but also their careers. For example, before computers people relied on books for their knowledge. Picking up a book, looking through it, and finding the information you need, is a lengthy process. Now when people have a question, they go to a search engine and it takes seconds to get a complete answer to their questions. This makes working an easier task than before. People can now work quicker and more efficient with the answers to basically all their questions available to them within a few clicks on a mouse.

Most Significant Flattener

Thomas Friedman spoke in his book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of The Twenty-first Century about "ten flatteners." Ten occurrences that leveled the global playing field or, more appropriately, started the globalization of information. Of the ten flatteners, "Uploading" is the most significant because information from anyone can be posted to the internet.

Uploading, in its most simple interpretation, is posting items to the internet via a blog, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc. Uploading is the opposite of downloading, which is when a user takes information or files from the internet. Anyone from anywhere can upload items to the internet. This is significant because two people from different ends of the Earth can collaborate and run a blog together without ever being in the same room or even the same country. A blog is a great example of uploading. It’s a simple user friendly version of a personal website. I can post my thoughts, pictures, videos online for the world to see. Users can keep their friends and family informed with their happenings. People can upload pictures to Flickr and have online photo albums to show their friends. People can retrieve current and to-the-minute information from anywhere in the world via uploading. Being able to upload pictures saves people so much money. In my family my mother used to always have her photos developed and made them into giant photo albums. Now she just uploads them to the internet and no longer has to have them developed, which costs money, to view them. She can show them off to her friends without having to carry around a giant book, or having the friends come to the house.

Uploading has completely changed the world of entertainment. Artists can upload their music online and have it reach the masses without having a record label or a contract. Anyone can upload a video for people to see. Many artists and bands today get their start by posting their videos online. Actors searching for work can post videos of their shows, or athletes can post videos of their sporting events. People can get themselves to every corner of the earth with just a click of a button; by uploading their information. Uploading videos to the internet has also made the unlikeliest of people famous. Average humans have become internet sensations over night just because of a video they have posted.

Uploading has changed the way information is distributed. Companies and people no longer have to send their documents through the mail or by other outdated means. Companies can upload their financial reports to their websites or to the internet so that investors or stakeholders can have current and update numbers. No longer do they have to mail them out. They can save time and money by just uploading their reports.

Uploading has completely changed the world. It has also changed and affected most every aspect of daily interaction between companies and people. This is why I feel it is the most significant of all the flatteners. Information is at now our fingertips.

The World Beefed Up On Steroids

After reviewing the ten flatteners that were presented in Tom Friedman's, "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century", I have come to realize that the idea of "steroids" within our world has had the biggest effect on the way that we live and function each and every day. According to Friedman, he groups the idea of the world being on steroids into three different types of steroids. He believes that the three types of steroids are digital steroids, mobile steroids, and personal steroids.

The idea of the world being involved in a digital steroid deals with the idea of how we are are able to use text, sound, pictures, and video to deal with daily activities and communication each and every day. These pictures are great examples of how we communicate without needing to have face to face communication. The pictures at the top of this post are great examples of how we have deleted face to face communication, as well as being able to access other peoples information as quickly as possible. Today anyone can have "facebook" chats or watch a video of someone online, while never having to talk or interact with them at all, face to face.

The second type of steroid is mobile steroids. Friedman talks about how the expansion of wireless internet, as well as the ability to use mobile phones to be able to access information with ease. No longer does someone need to go and use a home computer, or even a library, but instead just pull out their mobile phone and access the internet at the touch of a button. In my opinion this has been an addition to people lives to make things easier, as well as allow us to become more efficient with ease. While this idea does take away from people needing to be in the office to get work done, it has allowed people to use their time more efficiently and get things done without needing to be in the office for work. I believe that the movie we watched on BestBuy, and how they changed their policies on the requirements to be in the office. With the ability to have "mobile steroids", BestBuy was able to increase their efficiency, as well as their employee happiness which in the end made their company stronger and better than their nearest competitors.

The last type of steroid Friedman discusses is the "personal steroid". He says that these type of steroids are things that allow people to connect to other peoples computers to share information and documents such as Napster and google. He believes that search engines like Google have increased our ability to beef up our capabilities and become stronger individuals. Being able to access Google and search for any type of information available on the web has become one of the strongest tools available to us these days I believe. The previous two types of steroids have made our own personal steroids that much stronger. We are able to become advanced individuals with no further knowledge needed to be kept deep within our own brains. I personally have used google on my mobile phone in my classes to access information requested from my teachers and have been able to learn more from that one search, rather than just sit in class and not know what was being asked by my teacher and being useless.

In conclusion, I believe that the idea of "steroids" being a flattener has had the largest impact on the world we live in today. It has not only made us more efficient within our own worlds today, but has also allowed us to expand our horizons with information that we would not know off of the top of our heads. I believe it has allowed to hear information that we may question at first, and then be able to double check it on our mobile phones in a blink of an eye. While it may be a flattener with our own learning curve, it has actually expanded us to be able to be more accessible, and allow our brains to expand and only keep the critical information needed. Albert Einstein was once asked what his phone number was. He didn't waste his mind with the numbers as to it was, but trained himself to know that he could look it up in a phone book and tell you what it was. I believe that is what these steroids has done today. Not waste our minds with tons of facts, but allow our brains to know where to go to find these facts.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Tom Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat,” discusses the 10 flattener’s the one that caught my attention the most was the fall of the Berlin Wall. That event changed the world as we know it because it tore down a divider between America and Russia as well as Europe and Germany. After the fall of the Berlin Wall countries could trade freely with some countries that were once off limits. Russian and American cultures could mingle without issues between the two and that allowed the technologies of the countries to trade between them.

With the Berlin Wall torn down East and West Germany were able to unify again which allowed the best minds from both side to come together to start the creative process once again. With both sides together the cultures that developed could mix to create many different goods and inventions. These inventions were then able to spread to other countries allowing those countries to take those products and incorporate them into their cultures or to improve them as they see fit.

Once rivals Russia and America could now trade the products that were once meant to compete with the other countries for the same task and that meant that those products could be improved on to be the best of both worlds. Technologies once withheld from each other could be traded and used by both including military and civilian technologies. For the first time since World War 2 America and Russia could collaborate and cooperate together to develop some amazing items with the best from both countries.

Not only did it allow countries to redevelop and reconnect it was a marker for the end of communism. The years long battle between capitalism and communism had come to an end and that brought China to where it is today. Now that communism was no longer seen as the “bad guy” countries would begin to interact with those communist countries. China was now set up to grow and it has. China has since become a world leader and the source of most manufactured goods due to cheaper labor and costs. China has become a major manufacturer and an up and coming super power to contend with the likes of America and Russia causing some unrest for those countries in the process.

With the 10 flatteners each having a substantial impact on the flattening of the world the one that got it all started was the fall of the Berlin Wall. The fall began the flattening process and led to all the others making the world how we know it today.

Outsourcing

Thomas Friedman, the author of "The World is Flat," brings up ten events and concepts that have shaped America over the last few decades. He tells readers of how each of these situations have transformed the way people think as well as altered the industries and country's histories in a profound way. Based on this list, I believe outsourcing has created the widest ripple effect through American culture in particular.

The main effect of outsourcing on American culture has been the shift of the industry that has occured in the last two decades. This shift, however, has had incredible ramifications aside from the obvious change in available occupations. Part of this ripple has been a rise in the overall unemployment rate. Since many of the unskilled professions have been taken by workers in other countries, it has caused workers within America to be unable to find unskilled labor. This rise in the unemployment rate begins to cause even more problems within the economy. One consequence, higher inflation, is not easily fixed and can take decades to repair. A second consequence is a lower volume of new jobs for emerging new workers. This higher percentage of young adults not contributing to the economy can lead to an increase in crime rate, drug use and alcoholism within the usually employed demographic.

Less stringet quality control in foreign factories leads to a higher number of recalls of said products. This is not only dangerous for American citizens, but it also is the reason for safety issues within the factory itself. When internal quality control is lacking, it is likely management is providing limited support for workers and not providing good working conditions. Furthermore, this is unsafe due ot the amount of products that go unnoticed when the really should be recalled by the company. Foreign communication with their American parent company is more likely to be lacking within these outsourced branches, which multiplies these problems, hence why the ripple runs very wide.

Thomas Friedman's Flatteners

In Friedman's book, The World Is Flat, he discusses events and technologies that are flattening the world and increasing globalization. According to Friedman there are ten flatteners that changed technology and how we operate. In my opinion, the most crucial flattener is flattener number 10, Sterioids. The tenth flattener is new communications technology:digital, mobile, personal, and visual. Computing, instant messaging and file sharing, wireless technologies, voice over Internet Protocol, videoconferencing, and computer graphics all make up the steriod category. Friedman states that, "the sum is more than the parts. " Each flattener has a purpos in itself but is much more appreciated and successful when joined with others. The flatteners have a domino effect, they each were discovered by the other and play off one another. For example, the computer itself is good, but when you add the internet, Skype, games, etc. the value of the product increase tremendously.

What did the steroids do for technology? People can talk to people. Computers have become faster, and can be accessed easier than they ever have been. Individuals can see and to talk to one another from across the world. By downloading one simple application, people are able to communicate from across the world freely. Smart phones give poeple internet access anywhere. They can check emails, connect to the internet, and even Skype directly from thier phone. Being able to work on the go has made businesses more efficient and productive. People no longer have to be at the office to do work, they can be in a car, at the mall, or at home. At all times, they can be working, no matter the time or place. This has had a tremendous impact on the business world. From teh first computer game graphics to what we have now has been improved to be ten thousand times better. The quality has increased. "Video games are particularly more important in this regard, because in addition to their very realistic images and great sound, they are highly interactive and increasingly collaborative." (The World Is Flat, pg. 194)

My Biggest Flattener

There are many different flatteners for the world, but depending on your age the ways you were affected will vary. Flatteners can be defined as the inventions and break throughs that made normal, everyday activities easier for the population. These once new, innovative ideas, though, become old news, quickly, with the constant updating of technology.

Being in the world for two decades, I find it safe to say that technology has changed quick a bit along with the way that the world operates. In elementary school, computer classes were required, but for a while we focused on typing and applications for typing reports and essays. Later on in my education, computer classes became more focused on ways to find information by using the internet. This was new, though. For that reason, my biggest flattener was the informing flattener.

Presentation on the informing flattener can be seen here. 

For a while, during my early childhood education, if we needed to gather information for school related activities we either used our textbooks or encyclopedias. Students at my school attended more than one library lesson on how to use an encyclopedia system. Not only did we use encyclopedias to find information, but we were also required to use a certain amount of books when researching for a report or project. As I got older, though, the internet and its resources became more of a focus. Instead of having library lessons on using encyclopedias we began to have lessons on how to find reliable research information. We were even taught how to create our own websites. We also learned about search engines like google, dog pile and mamma. Such knowledge changed our lives drastically.



A few years after being taught how to find reliable information we were also taught how to use online databases. These were online collections of information from books, magazines, newspapers and other print sources. It became apparent that the need for paper resources was decreasing especially since many of these resources were now available through the web. Now, almost everything revolves around the internet. I experienced the change from the prominent use of books to the overtaking of search engines. Not only was this change something different, but also something that contributed to the ease of finding information. There is no question that books are dying out and being replaced by e-readers. The internet has definitely dominated the technological world especially since many new advances require the internet to take advantage of full capabilities. This flattener, by far, had the biggest impact on my generation so far. It is enough to make you wonder what other technological advances are in the back pocket of the technological world's future.

The Steroid

The World is Flat A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Fridman is a book that describes and analyzes globalization in early 21st century. Fridman describes ten flatteners that he saw as leveling the global playing field in todays society. Out of the ten flatteners the most important one would have to be The Steroids. Steroids is described as wireless, file sharing, and all analog content and processes to entertainment to photography to even word processing.

Steroids has to be at the top of the list out of all ten flatteners. Why is this you ask? Well The Steroids pretty much sums up all ten flatteners all in one. It includes some of the most advance technology that we use in everyday life in todays society. Without any of this technology that we use everyday where would we be today technology wise. Would we still be using Atrac tapes rather then MP3 players. Would we still be using the military size cell phone rather then the iPhones or the Droids that we can FaceTime with family or friends to even surf the web without connecting to the internet. Steroids I believe have made a huge impact on our society today and without it we would be blind.

Tom Friedman's Ten Flatteners

The most important flattener from Tom Friedman’s Ten Flattener’s would be “the steroids.” The steroids include computing, instant messaging and file sharing, wireless technologies, voice over Internet Protocol, videoconferencing, and computer graphics. These are all technologies that amplify the other flattener’s. The steroids allow all forms of computing and collaboration to be digital, mobile and personal. In his book Tom Friedman writes "As a result of these steroids, engines can now talk to computers, people can talk to people, computers can talk to computers, and people can talk to computers farther, faster, more cheaply, and more easily that ever before. And as that has happened, more people from more places have started asking one another the same two questions: can you hear me now? Can we work together now?”

All of the ten flatteners are important, but the tenth flattener regarding the steroids links all of them together making it the most important. The steroids include some of the most advanced technology that we currently have. The fact that individuals can be on opposite ends of the globe and have a conversation and see each other using Skype is fascinating. Wireless technologies and devices have also changed the world immensely. Being able to use a smart phone to check your email on-the-go has had a huge impact on the business world. Businessmen and women are able to continuously work no matter where they are; we no longer have to be in an office to get work done. This allows businesses to be more productive and successful. The advancement of computer graphics has also improved consumer life. When we watch television or play video games we want to have the best experience possible. With the introduction of high definition and 3D television consumers are becoming more and more satisfied.

Ten Flatteners Response

I think that the "flattener" that has had the most impact on the world was Netscape going public. Netscape allowed everyone to access and surf the internet, which greatly changed the face of the economy, and made the world that much smaller because people could access people and things from other countries online. Netscape going public lead to the internet and technology based world and economy that we live in today. Other factors may have had a big impact too, but I feel that what Netscape going public lead to, and how prevelent the internet now is (even though Netscape is no longer around), make the impact much greater than for any other flattener.

By: Tyler Cullins

Nick, Conor and Allison - What was Striking?

There were three things that struck our group as the most mind boggling. China's top 25% highest IQs are greater than the entire population of the United States. In India, that number is 28\%. China also has more cell phones than the total amount of people in the United States. Along with having more cell phones, China also has more honors students than the U.S. has children.

China has proven that they are a crucial part of the global economy. For example, if the United States gave China all of its work China would still have a labor force surplus. Also, 45% of college graduates in China earned a degree in engineering while only 5% of Americans did. In order for the United States to be a major competitor with China, more focus needs to be made on education, specifically encouraging education in information technology and the sciences. Without this focus, the United States will cease to be an economic powerhouse, ceding it to the rapidly growing economies of India and China. 

Teaching Technology

In this day in age technology is moving faster then we can study and learn about it. By the time that we graduate from college we will need to re-learn all of the new technology that is coming out. Everything that we have learned freshman year has become ineffective to us with how fast the technology wave is moving. The school system needs to show us how to use up and coming tecchnology so that we will be perpared for the future.

submited by Reilly, John, Macaulay, Chris A

Video Response

Composed by: Danny Greiner, Jillian McQuiggan, Wesley McAlister, Zach Kohn

The example from the video that struck us the most, is the fact that if every American job was shipped to China that China would still have a labor surplus. We find it hard to believe or imagine that China has that many workers. It puts in perspective how small America is compared to the rest of the world. It also amazes us how efficient China has to be. They have so many more people and so many more businesses that it puts America in its place in regards to thinking that America has the upper hand with suffciencies in the world.

Class assignment on video

Zack Swan
" China has more phones that the U.S has people"
There cna be many implications with this fact stated for implications for both business and workers in the U.S. One implication if this in the business veiw is the possiblity of workers in China spending more time with personal things on their phones rather than working. The use of the phone in China can cause for more time spent working on a smart phoen rather that actual in office workers. . This can be a change in the way work a persoanl work is done along with personal business from China to the US.

Tyler and Alfred - Outsourcing

One thing that we were concerned about that we saw had to due with the number of intelligent and english speaking people in Asia. 25% of the top I.Q.s in China, and 28% in India, are more than the entire population of North America. They also work for much cheaper than workers in the U.S. do. This means that more and more businesses will start to outsource jobs to India and China more than they already have. This is going to be a major problem for our already struggling economy. In years to come, China will become the largest speaking English country in the world. Businesses won't even have to deal with the language barrier anymore. The U.S. needs to start implementing a new strategy in education to make the students more prepared to fight for jobs in a now global market.

What Does It All Mean?

According to a recent study, children between the ages of 2 and 5 are using the internet at a rate similar to today's teenage population. As a result, they are learning and developing skills that are going to be crucial to the future. Essentially, today's children are going to be what drives the advancement of technology in the future.

By: Kelly Vaillancourt, Julie Blais, Lenny Colometo, Rob Kiwanis, & Zach Grant

Outdated

The one fact that struck us was that every two years information becomes obsolete, meaning by now information we learned freshman is now outdated. The reason for this is that information technology is improving and advancing so increasingly fast. That we have to work harder and create new techniques to improves classes and ways of teaching students. Soon it will be up to American students to use these new technologies to learn faster and catch up with globalization era of technology. While the globalization of the world has improved technologies we must improve ourselves and continue to adapt with the everchanging world.

Matt Sullivan, Andrew Platt,Brandon Lieff

Children and Computers

31% of children between the ages of 0 and 3 use computers.

For businesses this will be beneficial because employess will have extensive experience with computers. These indivuduals will need little to no training with computer technology. This would save the company money because they are not paying employess to train other employess and they are not paying employees to be trained.

These individuals may become too dependent on technology. If that technology is no longer available for whatever reason, the individual will be unable to complete certain tasks. Also, these indviduals will not need to be taught how to use a computer while in school. They are self-teaching themselves as they grow up. This would also affect the workforce beause there is no need for teachers in the computer technology field, the profession would become obsolete.

Written By: Megan Finacom and Haylie Carter

Apple Introduces iCloud

Apple Introduces iCloud

June 6^th, 2011

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/06/06Apple-Introduces-iCloud.html

The ongoing challenges in today’s fast-moving world are the ability to obtain information and files as quickly as possible. Many companies have created different applications to allow remote access such as, Dropbox and LogMeIn. While these are great sites that allow you to be able to access different computers and files, I believe that the new iCloud that will be introduced this fall will blow these other companies out of the water. Apple has a reputation for doing something, and doing it bigger and better than any other company who has done it previously. Hence why Apple has become a household name all over the world.

The new iCloud is a complex system that very few people in the world will ever truly be able to understand; yet anyone will be able to use it, and use it successfully. Due to Apples great success, it has been able to save up roughly around $70 Billion dollars in reserves to use at their own discretion. With this money they decided to start at the first step possible to create the iCloud feature. They have been able to create a massive data center in North Carolina that will be one of the main headquarters where the iCloud software will be housed. This article not only explains the logistics within the center, but also has a video of the areal view of how large it truly is. With Apple being prepared sufficiently, I believe they will truly be able to launch the iCloud and expand even further from what capabilities it currently has available within it.

With Apple having the truly needed base to be prepared for iCloud to work, they are already headed in the right direction. They have the middle section of the circle we discussed in class needed to succeed fully established. Now it is time for them to establish their operating devices to work correctly with that hardware they have. This is a no brainer in the technology world that it will work for them. Apple has a huge track record of creating new and expanding iOS software to improve on what is already available. They currently have in their 4.3 iOS a tease of what iCloud will bring. You can at any time, anywhere, on any iOS device, download any previously purchased material directly to the device you have in hand at no additional cost. This is where they will crush their competition. They have given any apple customer the ability to access their information quickly and easily on the go. I personally have used this ability numerous times just riding in my car and wanted to listen to a song that wasn’t on my iPhone. I just went to my iTunes app and downloaded the song that was on my computer and it downloaded on my phone in seconds and was able to listen to it. This is an example of how iTunes in the Clouds works. Not only will this work with music, but Apple is also allowing people to load documents on any device to the “Cloud” and then be able to access it on any other device. This is really important to me as it will allow me to be able to type up my notes on my iPad in class, sync it to the Cloud and then be able to print it off on my computer when I return to my room. It helps to cut out the middle step of having to email it to myself and makes it easier. Here is a longer video of how iOS 5 is going to work.

In conclusion, Apple being able to allow its customers these advantages and capabilities not only puts Apple above its competitors, but also it creates a major advantage to everyday people and college students, and not just big businesses. It will be breaking news when the iCloud is launched and the new iOS 5 software is released. I know I will be one of the first people to get it, as the possibilities are endless for them.