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                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.