ICT and Globalization - Homepage Usask
ICT and Globalization - Homepage Usask
ICT and Globalization - Homepage Usask
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The World is Flat?<br />
<strong>ICT</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Globalization</strong><br />
Cmpt. 408<br />
March 18, 2008<br />
Three Stages of <strong>Globalization</strong><br />
• <strong>Globalization</strong> 1.0: 1492 to 1800<br />
– the renaissance <strong>and</strong> the enlightenment<br />
– the rise of world empires<br />
– countries globalize<br />
• <strong>Globalization</strong> 2.0: 1800 to 2000<br />
– the industrial revolution<br />
– companies globalize<br />
• <strong>Globalization</strong> 3.0: 2000 to ????<br />
– the information revolution<br />
– individuals globalize<br />
• Think of the transformative effects that each of these<br />
previous revolutions <strong>and</strong> globalization spasms had on<br />
their worlds<br />
The Flat World<br />
• The basic hypothesis is that a number of interrelated<br />
factors are combining to massively stimulate various<br />
kinds of globalization, to reduce or eliminate<br />
geographic barriers to trade <strong>and</strong> commerce<br />
the flat world<br />
• When Columbus arrived in America in 1492 he<br />
thought he had arrived in India, <strong>and</strong> thus the world<br />
was round<br />
• When Friedman arrived in Bangalore, India, in 2004<br />
he saw all of the American companies now in India,<br />
<strong>and</strong> realized the world was now flat<br />
The 10 Forces that Flattened the World<br />
• 11/9/89 - Berlin Wall comes down, partially as a<br />
result of information technology (internet <strong>and</strong> PC)<br />
helping breach the iron curtain; triumph of capitalism<br />
• 8/9/95 - the birth of the web (when Netscape, the first<br />
PC-based browser, went public); much subsequent<br />
st<strong>and</strong>ardization allowing interoperability across<br />
platforms for most application software<br />
• Work Flow Software - software that coordinates<br />
tasks<br />
• Uploading - harnessing the power of communities<br />
(eg. Wikipedia, chat rooms, blogs, etc.)<br />
• Outsourcing - massive overbuilding of fibre optics<br />
cable during dot com bubble provides very low cost<br />
internet<br />
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The 10 Forces that Flattened the World<br />
• Offshoring - movement of manufacturing jobs to lowwage<br />
countries<br />
• Supply Chaining - supply chain management<br />
software (eg. Wal-Mart)<br />
• Insourcing - logistics managed by third party experts<br />
( (eg. UPS) allows ll small ll companies i tto act t llarge<br />
• In-forming - finding information on the web (eg.<br />
Google searching, Yahoo!)<br />
• The Steroids - digital, mobile, personal, <strong>and</strong> virtual<br />
technologies (eg. cell phones, Blackberries, iPods,<br />
video conferencing technology, etc.)<br />
The Great Sorting Out<br />
• As a result of the flattening world, the traditional roles<br />
of consumer, employee, citizen, taxpayer <strong>and</strong><br />
shareholder have all become blurred <strong>and</strong><br />
interconnected<br />
– individuals can act big<br />
– companies are now distributed<br />
– communities are now fragmented<br />
– everybody has multiple identities<br />
– are third world workers exploited? who is exploiting whom?<br />
The Triple Convergence<br />
• The flattening forces needed time to work <strong>and</strong> take<br />
root, leading to a triple convergence<br />
– convergence 1 - the single, web-enabled computing<br />
platform for global <strong>and</strong> multiple forms of collaboration<br />
– convergence 2 - business practices become horizontal,<br />
breaking down traditional hierarchies<br />
– convergence g 3 - 3 billion people p p ( (in China, , India, , Eastern<br />
Europe, Russia, Central Asia, Latin America) suddenly able<br />
to be players in the global economy<br />
• The triple convergence of universal platform,<br />
horizontal business practices, <strong>and</strong> massive numbers<br />
of new players led to rapid, dramatic globalization,<br />
<strong>and</strong> ultimately the flat world<br />
Work in the Flat World<br />
• Jobs flow to where the work is cheapest <strong>and</strong>/or the skills are<br />
greatest<br />
• Free trade vs. protectionism<br />
– free trade competition for existing jobs or exp<strong>and</strong>ed markets <strong>and</strong><br />
more jobs?<br />
– race to the bottom or race to the top?<br />
– what kinds of new jobs are available in the flat world?<br />
• creativity is key<br />
• What kinds of skills will be most useful in the flat world?<br />
– synthesizing<br />
– explaining<br />
– leveraging<br />
– versatility <strong>and</strong> adaptability<br />
• Crucial: education <strong>and</strong> training<br />
– right brain skills <strong>and</strong> wholistic thinking<br />
– learning to learn<br />
– self reliance<br />
– life-long learning<br />
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A Case Study: Irel<strong>and</strong><br />
• Irel<strong>and</strong> is now the second richest country in the EU (after<br />
Luxembourg)<br />
• But in mid-80’s Irel<strong>and</strong> was nearly broke <strong>and</strong> most college graduates<br />
were emigrating, after a “borrowing, spending, <strong>and</strong> taxing spree”;<br />
thus, government, unions, industries forged a pact<br />
– fiscal austerity<br />
– corporate taxes slashed<br />
– moderate wages g <strong>and</strong> pprices<br />
– aggressive courting of foreign investment<br />
– public college education basically free<br />
• Result: huge success; Irel<strong>and</strong> now<br />
– hosts operations of 9 of top 10 pharmaceutical companies, 16 of top 20<br />
medical device companies, 7 of top 10 software firms<br />
– has large amount of foreign investment<br />
– has tax receipts that are steadily rising<br />
• Lesson: success goes to the country with the best educated<br />
workforce, most competitive infrastructure, most creative<br />
environment, <strong>and</strong> most supportive government<br />
Final Thoughts on the Flat World<br />
• My final pessimistic thought: as all knowledge<br />
becomes available to everybody, how do we protect<br />
the world from one really nihilistic person who can<br />
access the most dangerous information?<br />
• My final optimistic thought: never have so many<br />
individuals been so empowered to play on so broad a<br />
world stage <strong>and</strong> consequently never has so much<br />
knowledge <strong>and</strong> culture been available to so many for<br />
so few resources<br />
• Next: new media <strong>and</strong> the long tail<br />
<strong>Globalization</strong> vs Localization<br />
• Is the flat world homogenizing?<br />
– one global village or many global villages (see McCalla,<br />
2000)?<br />
– “flat world platform” affords opportunities for preserving <strong>and</strong><br />
enhancing diversity of culture <strong>and</strong> language<br />
• uploading of all kinds of multi-media by all sorts of people in all<br />
sorts of places<br />
– negative side too<br />
• support for groups of pedophiles, terrorists<br />
• the end of a special role for expertise: good or bad?<br />
• Impact on global politics: 11/9 (Berlin Wall falls) vs<br />
9/11 (Al-Qaeda rises)<br />
– good: integrated economies make war less likely? (but<br />
remember WW1)<br />
– bad: terrorists <strong>and</strong> other local groups can have global<br />
influence, can share knowledge about weapons, techniques<br />
References<br />
• Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief<br />
History of the Twenty-First Century (Release 2.0),<br />
Farrar, Straus <strong>and</strong> Giroux, 2006<br />
• Thomas L. Friedman, “It’s a Flat World, After All”, NY<br />
Times Magazine, April 2005<br />
– also available directly<br />
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/03DOMINANCE.html?page<br />
wanted=1&ei=5090&en=cc2a003cd936d374&ex=1270267200<br />
• G. McCalla, “The Fragmentation of Culture,<br />
Learning, Teaching <strong>and</strong> Technology …”, Int. J. of AI<br />
in Education, 11, 2, 2000, pp. 177-196<br />
– follow IJAIED Papers link at<br />
http://aied.inf.ed.ac.uk/<br />
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