module 5

                Hello again everybody, Let's continue back into our reading of The World is Flat. In the essay I'm going to cover pages 200 - 259. Friedman talks about the triple-convergence.

                The first convergence is about how the ten flatteners we previously discussed have relied on each other to perform better. The example he uses in the book is when he was traveling with southwest airlines. His plan was to order his tickets online and show up early so that he could print his ticket and get into the boarding group A, but when Friedman arrived and printed out his ticket he was place into boarding group B. This was because of the first convergence. Because of the flatteners ability to utilize each other, it was now possible for people to print their own tickets at home instead of at the airport. This allowed them to be placed into boarding group A.

                The second convergence talks about the time it took for the flatteners to be implemented into the world. He explains how companies expected instant productivity increases by utilizing new computers and workflow software but were instead disappointed by the lack of productivity increase. This was due to the time it took for everyone to implement the use of these new technologies before the benefits would roll in.

                The third convergence is about the flood of new people from India, China, and the Soviet Empire who were able to work with businesses and corporations in the United States without ever leaving their country. This was due to their ability to adapt to this new technology as they were just introduced to the new flat world.

                Friedman talks about the "India vs. Indiana" issue where Indiana is taking bid from various companies to process the unemployment claims. A company out of India won the bid by a whopping $8 million. Now the question is who is exploiting who? I personally think it's more India exploiting Indiana because they know they can get do the work for much less than any other U.S. based company.

                Intellectual Property is basically just the product of one's mind or thoughts. Intellectual property is vital to the creation of new technology. If everybody used one persons invention or idea to make a profit for themselves, that would slow the progress of new ideas and technology. That is why we have patents and copyright laws. These patents and copyrights are there to protect intellectual property and provide the original creator compensation for their work. This also in return forces others to use their own ideas and thoughts to create, thus further advancing technology.

Module 4

                I have chosen to do my essay on Network Administration. A Network Administrator is the person who is in charge of the maintenance of not only a network, but all of the computer hardware, software, and other devices connected to the network. They are also referred to as Network Analysts or Network Engineers. There is a Network Administrator behind every large network, anywhere from schools, call centers, libraries, restaurants, you can name just about any business this day and age and it will in some way utilize a network.

                Network Administration is extremely needed for schools. Have you ever wondered how you can just magically access your saved documents or school work from every computer in your school? Or how each student and teacher has their own personal school email? This is all done through the school's LAN (Local Area Network). A LAN is a network comprised of a series of computers connected by a central server. Some LAN's even consist of multiple servers that connect to each other to combine multiple networks. Typically, a school will have multiple servers that handle different tasks. For example, one server will be for the sole purpose of handling email while another server will just be used to host grading information or software. The Network Administer monitors and maintains all of the wires, servers, computers, log in information, etc. They make sure that the LAN is up and running at all times so that the information and systems can be accessible to every student, teacher, and staff.

                For my interview, I spoke with my brother in law about his career history with Network Administration. He has worked in multiple IT fields for Hill Air Force Base and numerous local businesses. While working as a Network Administrator, he would handle pretty much every task or request the users needed. The most common tasks included regular system updates to fix any slow network traffic, monitoring the network equipment to make sure everything is in good condition to prevent any hardware failure, and monitoring log in access information and security to make sure the information on the network stayed safe from any unwanted eyes. Overall he stated that he has loved his Network Administration jobs because he was always in charge of how things ran and there was something new to do each day.

                I actually look forward to going into Network Administration because of the large demand. A Network Administrator can't necessarily be outsourced either because a lot of the work done is hands on, so the field is a fairly safe career choice as well. I see the future for Network Administration only growing as more and more each day.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_administrator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSavUnXXAnI

Keenan Campbell

Module 3 

Off shoring and out sourcing, what’s the difference? The two business strategies are very similar in their methods and purpose but in fact are completely different from one another. Out sourcing is what we call it when a business takes one or two tasks and sends them to another country or area that the task can be completed by employees at a lower pay. In return, this saves the business money where as if they were to have U.S. employees handle the task they would need to be paid more. Now off shoring on the other hand, is when the business takes an entire process to another country to be completed. This is typically what is done with manufacturing processes. We have all seen the infamous “made in china” stickers on almost everything. This is because businesses have jumped on the opportunity to move manufacturing to china because of the very cheap labor and lower taxes. In short, out sourcing is when a part of a process is handled in another country by cheaper labor and off shoring is when the entire process is done out of country by cheaper labor.

A supply chain is what we call the network of manufactures, suppliers, retailers, and finally customers. The way the supply chain works is simple, the manufacture produces the product and sell it to a supplier for some amount of profit. The supplier then turns around and sells the product to a retailer for another amount of profit. The retailer then takes the product and stocks it on their shelves for the customers to browse and purchase the product for, you guessed it, profit. You can see how this strategy works, as the retailer doesn’t make the products they simply sell them for more than they paid. This can quickly cause an items price to go up and it goes through more links in the supply chain. Wal-Mart has capitalized on the supply chain. Essentially what they have done is removed the links between them and the manufacture thus allowing them to sell items for a much lower price than their rival retailers. That’s not all; Wal-Mart has also made the supply chain more efficient through the use of modern technology to be able to predict and foresee what items are in demand at any given time. This information is then relayed to the manufacture in near real time so that they in return know what to make, how much, and when to make it. This super efficient supply chain has allowed Wal-Mart to climb to the top as the world’s biggest retailer.

Google has made a huge impact on the way businesses today advertise. Before Google, businesses had to really on putting their advertisements out to the world and hope that someone is interested in what it is they’re trying to sell or promote. What Google has done is provided relevant advertising. For example, say you’re planning a trip with your family to go camping for the week end but you don’t know where to go. The first thing you do is jump onto Google and search, “Ogden Utah campsites.” What you’ll get is maybe a list of local campsites but also there might be websites on the list that sell camping gear. This type of advertising makes it more precise on determines what ads pop up based on what you’re looking for rather than just giving your so random ad for weight loss pills when you search for bulk up work outs. The result of this is that businesses are getting more customers actually wanting to buy what they have to sell.

Module 2

            Hello again, I’m going to write about some of the major forces that Thomas L. Friedman covers in his book “The World is Flat. These forces play very important roles in flattening the world.

I’m going to start with workflow software. Workflow software is software designed to assist with the completion of a specific task. Typically tasks that require multiple steps and people involved. The way I see it, workflow software is just a digital assembly line and a perfect example of that assembly line is the student loan industry. I have actually worked for a student loan company for the last year. Workflow software has allowed the process of applying for a loan quick and painless (If approved of course) by allowing students to apply for the loan online digitally and get results in a matter of seconds. This is all possible through workflow software. Once Submit, the application is run through an initial check that verifies the applicant’s identity. The next step requests information from one of the three credit reporting agencies. If the credit information meets our requirements the student will then receive their results, pass or fail. If approved, the remaining steps can be completed online as well through our electronic signing process. That process asks the applicant a series of security questions to verify identity further more than allows them to agree to their terms. Even the process of sending the funding to the students school is done digitally. As you can imagine, the whole process would take weeks of mailing documents back and forth to even know if you’re approved for the loan. With workflow software, the whole process from start to finish can be done without even leaving the computer chair. This has allowed the company to handle many more accounts all over the country in a timely manner.

Next in line is open-source software. Open-source software is simply just software that is provided freely along with the original source code. What this allowed was the ability for programmers all over the world to develop high quality software by building and refining each other’s work and provide it to the world for free. Open-source software plays an important role in flattening the world because it takes the power out of the big name software developer’s hands and gives it to the community. The growth of open-source software forced companies to support and better their product so that they would have a reason for people to purchase it.

The last flattening force I will discuss today is outsourcing. Outsourcing is the process in which an organization will take a local task and have it completed in a more cost efficient location. Outsourcing is very big with call centers as calls can be digitally relayed to another country and handled by employees at a much lower pay grade then employees in the United States. It plays an important role as it greatly improves a company’s profits and provides people from less fortunate parts of the world with a job. I personally was not a big fan of outsourcing because of my experiences of poor customer service in the past. But the customer service has grown quite a bit over the years and I have realized that outsourcing is a very effective business strategy.

The more I read this book, the more I realize just how unaware we are about the amount of change that has happened over the last few years. Technology is growing at an extreme rate and it’s only going to make life easier and the world a better place to live. 

Module 1

                I’m going to talk about the book The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. To be completely honest, I wasn’t very excited to read this book. That all changed after the first two pages. It started to catch my attention with the comparisons of his journey to India to Columbus’s journey. Both journeys are for the same purpose, globalization, yet both on very different levels. Columbus’s contribution to globalization takes place during the globalization 1.0 era. This was the first stage that opened up the trade between the Old World and the New World and lasted from 1492 until sometime around the 1800’s. Globalization 1.0 brought the world down from a large size to a medium. However, this was only the beginning. The second era is referred to as globalization 2.0 which lasted from the 1800’s to the year 2000. The driving force of globalization was now turned to multinational companies. Powered by lower transportation and telecommunication costs, it was the birth of a global economy. The world had now dropped to a size small. The globalization 3.0 era brought new power to individuals, giving them the ability to compete globally. This was possible through a vast global digital network. It is in this era that Thomas L. Friedman went on his journey through India. We are only in the very early stages of this era as it turns the world from small to tiny.

                The fall of the Berlin wall played an important role in globalization. The wall had essentially blocked many people from the idea and view of freedom. The fall of the wall empowered the people and took the power from the leaders, allowing the people to decide their future and see the world as a seamless whole. This event led to the rise of the Personal Computer (PC) and the start of global networks.

                Netscape’s history is extremely important to globalization. Netscape made it possible for the average user to gain access to the World Wide Web through the use of the web browser. Before the web browser, access to the World Wide Web was possible it was just not very user friendly. Netscape pioneered the standard protocols still in use today. These protocols made it possible for all systems from all manufactures to communicate and transfer data digitally through the World Wide Web. Netscape’s success led to an over investment in fiber-optic cable. This over investment was so vast that it put the investors into a price war amongst each other, thus leading to extremely low Internet access pricing and virtually free data transfer. Sure this was bad for the business, but the low prices allowed more and more people to access the World Wide Web.

                So far, this has been a very interesting read for me as it closely relates to the field in which I am studying. I love computer science and technology as a whole and I look forward to sharing my experiences of this book with you. Thank you for reading!