Module 13

This semester has just flown by for me! Now it is time to assess what I have learned.  The biggest thing I have learned, (although I’m sure I have a full understanding of it because it seems endless) is how connected we all are through technology.  Which I also learned how it is everywhere, and I use it for almost everything.  Many younger people, like myself were sort of born into this high-tech world, and it is interesting to learn how it all came about and is constantly developing.  How could it not? I am not proud to admit it, but I always have my smart phone with me and I would guess I’m not the only one.  So of course people are always connected and trying to make our lives easier and technology better!  

Throughout the readings of The World is Flat by Friedman, I learned just a few of the ways we are all connected and can work with one another for a better economy and future.  Different countries even work together in ways they can both benefit! I have only really ever put thought into America, and Japan as developing countries because thats mostly what we hear about.  It was interesting to read about other countries also becoming more advanced in their own ways, such as the example about India.

One thing I enjoyed most was the articles.  It made it so we weren’t learning this course threw only one author and his opinions.  Instead we got to read a few others which helped me to have a better understanding of our world developing, and carry that on with me.  If we read from only one text book this would have felt more like “a class I took one time”.  A Logic Named Joe was my favorite article to read, because it was at the start technology in a sense and the accents the characters had made it fun to read.  

I’m so glad this class is online and assignments are submitted over a blog because thats what this class is all about!  Learning how to make a blog will surely help me in the future.  Reading what others blog posts had to say about the assignment was fun and a learning experience of its own.  Some people have strong opinions and some take the assignment even further by sharing their own knowledge while answering the questions asked.  Those were my favorite to read.

Overall I think this was a very beneficial class and very eye opening.  I have already recommended it to a few friends.  The course guidelines were very clear from the very beginning.  There isn’t anything I would change in this course.  Instructor Jensen was very helpful and easy to communicate with over email.  The readings were never overwhelmingly long like they are in some courses. I think I’ll keep the book.

Module 12

We all have fear in us. Some people fear spiders, some fear never finding love, but most people fear the future because we don’t know what it holds.  The author, Joy is also afraid so it seems.  Technology has helped us to overcome that fear a bit because we can now predict the future more accurately.  Because we are trying to make our lives much easier, it isn’t surprising that it might include robots.  A real concern with robots  is that they could possibly take over the human race.  They can’t die, because they aren't alive.  With technology so advanced they could possibly develop their own thoughts and personalities. When I think of robots taking over the world it always makes me think of the 2004 movie with Will Smith, I, Robot.  I think that movie is a good representation of what could happen.  GNR is a new technology that is helping to improve us. Stands for genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robots.

GNR has three components, the first being its genetics.  We use genetic engineering all the time!  We use it in agriculture for better crops, in medicine to help fight viruses, and even to choose what gene’s your baby will receive, such as green eyes and curly hair.  In my opinion genetic engineering is a good and helpful thing as long as we don’t over use it.  I would never genetically engineer a human, or what will become a human.  I think things could take a turn for the worst in something we don’t already fully understand.  We still get birth defects, disease, ect. that we have no idea where they come from or how to treat them.  Crops, such as corn we have a better understanding of the science behind it and it isn’t someones life on the line. 

Nanotechnology is similar to genetic engineering.  It is the second of the three GNR components.  Nanotechnology helps protect us from viruses that could make us sick. It can cause great good for us, but also great devastation. The military use it in their nuclear technology.  Using it as a weapon which could potentially harm a lot of people.

Robots is the third component.  We use robots for everything, if you count robots as any advance piece of technology such as a cell phone.  Id like to say robots are aids for the human race, like a robot nanny or something.  Robots are improving more and more because they are a part of technology.  It is just scary if we make them to advanced and they start having human like tendency’s.  We like robots to make our jobs easier, but doesn’t that make us lazy?  I think there is or will be a limit to how we use robots in our daily lives.  We still want to live and do things that make us human! If robots do everything for us then we are not living our lives to the fullest, as we should be.

Bill Joy is a little bit dramatic in my opinion, but I do agree with his underline understanding of it all.  GNR is good, but we could absolutely over use it or use it in a wrong way.  There are two sides to everything.

Module 11

The 2008 action thriller Eagle Eye has computer use through and through the entire movie, it is also a fun movie to watch in my opinion.  Actors Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, and Billy Bob Thornton star in the film, written by Dan McDermott and directed by D.J. Caruso. Both Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan start off in the story as strangers and are quickly brought together for a mission, threw the technology around them. In the city of Chicago it seemed to be pretty easy to do, considering they both had cell phones, traffic cameras and business cameras on the street, televisions, and any other type of technology.  

The people targeting the man and woman were able to use computers to tap into anything that uses a computer, including a lifting magnetic mobile crane. They were constantly one step ahead of LaBeouf and Monaghan.  Whenever the two would try and escape from the torturous game they were driven right back into it threw the technology around them.  They were basically just like puppets that had a mind of their own. The only time Shia LaBeouf was able to out smart the use of computers was at the very end on the movie, when he preformed a terrorist attack to make himself a target as everyone else escaped. 

Module 10

A Logic Named Joe was a very interesting and incisive read. A lot of the terms used in the short story are different from what we use now, so I do admit it took me awhile to understand what was going on.  For example the term “logics” and the Logics Company.  I did not find it surprising that everyone had a computer; but I was very surprised that everyone had one before they even knew what they were capable of!  It was a good thing everyone could have one though because I’am sure it helped advance the computers by working together, seeing that everyone could get their hands on one.

In the present day it is very clear to us that computers are just objects. It seems silly thinking or treating them as a human.  Reading this short story they almost treated the Logic they had as a human, they even gave it a name and talked about it’s emotions.  They made it seem as if the computer/logic had its own mind and thoughts which was interesting.  The computer would hum, and instead of saying it is making noise they would say things like “Joe is humming happily” or “Joe is flickering meditatively.” 

Having sensor blocks so early on in the computer world was very surprising.  I would have thought that feature would come later down the line, because it doesn’t seem like it is the that important.  Well at least compared to other features such as email, or a clock on the device seems more necessary.  Anyways, they did invent it early on and I’m sure it helped control what a lot of people searched.  I like that we can now put on “parental locks” on certain sights, not that I have children to worry about I’d just imagine it comes in handy as a parent. 

"If you want to do something and don't know how to do it—ask your logic!" The very repetitive line throughout the text.  It seemed as if that’s almost all they used logics for. Now days we use computers for everything you can think of!  There were a few funny examples of people asking a logic how to do something.  For example the drunk asking how to hide his intoxication from his wife, that was pretty comical. 

The logics are all connected by a tank that each of them have.  Just like we are all connected when we get “online”.  We connect a lot threw social media, and the wife in the story is a good example of how most people act today on social media.  She didn’t really want anyone to know things about her, except for the good things.  She just wanted to know everything about everyone else.  People still do that today.  Sometimes they might add a photo to their Facebook in which they look good in but all the other people in the photo do not look their best. It’s pretty silly if you ask me.

Module 8

The first time I laid eyes on a huge beige electronic box (also known as a computer), I was about five years old.  It was my dad’s computer he would use for work purposes, although it would run extremely slow and very loudly.  Basically I was born into this crazy technologically advanced world, but I do remember my first interactions with computers.  Once I reached fourth grade my classmates and I were allowed to play a game on the computers, after finishing our math. The game consisted of a purple rectangle space ship that you would have to move using the arrow keys on the keyboard to avoid the small green squares “astroids”.  I think it was interesting how as the years added on each classroom would have an increasing amount of computers for the students to use.  Now you walk into almost any school and their are computer labs.  A room filled with enough computers that thirty or so students can use all at once.  Also the changes in the computers were drastic.  Starting has huge blocky machines with little pixilated screens, to 20” high definition flat screens.

From sixth grade, to my junior year of high school I had a computer class.  Even a few in my first years of college.  We learned how to type on the keyboard most of these years.  Learning our hand, wrist, and posture positions; and figuring out which finger was supposed to push each letter and number key.  Then we moved on to learning Windows software, such as MS Word, Power Point, Windows Live Mail, Photo Gallery, MS Excel, and for fun we would use MS Paint.  A lot of the software have improved over time, making them more user friendly. These basic learning tools helped me advance my knowledge in other ways as well.  Almost every book report, essay, thesis and other assignments I had to turn in would have to be typed. When you use a computer to write your assignment, most programs offer spell check, proofreading and so on. This was an eventful way to help me and others in learning grammar, punctuation, and even the English language it’s self using the “define in dictionary” tab.  Even the use of computers that were not hands on were educational.  Teachers could project something for the entire class to see using their computer.  Emails, grades, academic calendars and assignment updates can all be checked online.

If I had never learned how to use a computer many of the things I do today would be much different!  Personally I use a computer based device for almost everything I do. From checking the weather, to figuring out a crazy math problem.  I’m very grateful that the computer classes I’ve had were mandatory, because a few of them were very boring to me at the time. Looking back at it now I am very glad I learned such technology at the age that I did.  Now that I am older and putting this technology to use, it makes it much easier to learn new things when you already know the basics.  My entire educational experience would have been different without the use of computers.

Module 7

Friedman begins this section of the reading with of the different countries work. He discusses how it is beneficial for some businesses to be run from different countries, and how this can help influence globalization because of us having to work together.  Different countries do things differently, and that is usually what gives them the extra push to be more globalized and efficient. Such as America, a lot of individuals have their own or free access to a computer, where some countries that may be very rare.  Friedman also mentioned everyone becoming more like America.  I don’t think that can happen completely thought, because every country has their own assets and advantages that they should play on, rather than becoming like America in the same way. I don’t think it could ever work completely because we are all different, but I do agree that some countries might become more like the U.S.. 

Different countries have different resources ready to access. They are able to obtain this material more easily than some other countries. This is part of why some countries regions do things better than other countries regions. If that is the supply in “demand and supply”, then the demand would be for work. Some countries might need more work for their economy and might accept a lower pay wage. Also education plays a role. India has more students studying engineering then other countries, so you are able to pay less then other competitors just because there are so many.  If you were in need of a engineer and they were rare, you would need to pay more for one to work for you.  Countries have taken what they can offer and use it to their advantage in globalizing, to not only make it in this world but to thrive.

Once reading about self-directed consumers i’ve realized most of us are one! I am because I know there is no better way to get what I want then to do it myself. Company’s offer great variety of selections, and the ones that offer the most becomes the best. This makes me think of Wal-mart. They have almost all the basics you can think of and their stores are easy to navigate and its all basically self-serve, like a buffet. “They are actually making their customers their employees and having them pay the company for the pleasure at the same time!” It seems so crazy but when you think about it, it really is efficient. You walk in a store looking for an apple, you have signs showing you where the produce section is, everything is labeled so you can pick the one you like, and then you can even use self check out! We can now navigate entire stores and get everything we need without speaking one word to an actual employee.

Globalization does mean Americanization, in my opinion.  America has advanced so much that we can create anything we want anytime we want it.  We spoil ourselves because it is so easy.  For the most part America doesn’t need to work with other countries as much as other countries need to work together, because we don’t need as much because we can do it ourselves. This is good and bad.  Good because we don’t need to relay on anyone, but bad because we don’t necessarily have to work together with the other countries.  If every country is Americanizing then eventually we wont need each other, and that can be scary.

Module 6

As the world becomes more “flat” the more we are working together as a human race to better ourselves.  Free trade is a great example of how we can work together for improvement. Free trade is where we can buy and exchange items or services.  Of course in some countries there is tax so not all profit will always go to the traders.  Free trade helps us expand our relationship with the rest of the world and can help economies.  Free trade can help us improve  ourselves and our products/services because we want more in return.  It opens up the world and increases demand.  With increasing demand to make ends meet that usually means more employment, which is good for our country.  In order to make a fair trade you have to be worth as much as what you receive in return.  There have been countries that do not allowed free trade policies and more then often the affect of that is disastrous.  With proof that it does improve our world immensely I believe it is very important. Countries that still do not allow this policy might not be hurting, but they are not improving either.

As we improve we must be more competitive if we want to come out on top.  To do so we must learn new skills to make our selves useful enough that we can’t be replaced by machines.  These generation of people have to make themselves more valuable then machine, this class of people is know as the “new middles”.  From my understanding of the book, new middlers are people from the middle class that need to adapt and sometimes go above and beyond, in order to be stable in their work environment.  If not, they will loose their jobs.  As I mentioned before, working together is a big part of improvement in this modern age.  Being able to collaborate and work together is a necessary skill new middlers must learn.

CQ+PQ>IQ is a formula that refers to even more great tools to navigate this flat new world.  Curiosity, passion, and motivation are very great assets, more valuable then common knowledge.  There is no limit to how intelligent and even valued you can be, if you are curious, passionate, and motivated.  Technology gives us limitless possibilities!  If you are passionate about something, why not learn all the information you can from it, it will only better yourself. Well, in most situations.  In todays standards, its almost necessary that you always go beyond what is expected.  Technology makes it easy for us to access this in the click of a button.

Module 5

Friedman explains the idea of triple convergence in three areas of this section of The World Is Flat.  This starts with the previous ten flatteners coming together and working together.  Many companies will change and adapt to these new changes to keep up to date with the new flatteners.  The first convergence is described as work flow software and hardware connected to make machines that can do many things at once.  All though the flatteners have been around for years, as they start to come together to help businesses, it is known as the second convergence.  With more competition it is helpful for businesses to use the flatteners.  Lastly is the third convergence, so many people have their own ideas and tools to add to flattening the world.  The third convergence shaped global economics and politics in the beginning of the twenty-first century. 

Just because you have tools doe not mean it will increase your productivity.  This is why the triple convergence is so important.  I enjoyed the example Friedman gave, when they first introduced computers to the work force, they though it would have a huge effect.  Of course it wasn’t right away, workers had to learn what to do and how to do it using a computer.  It would change the way most jobs are by using software and such to the best of their abilities rather then how they worked before.

You all know the story about India and Indiana, and the question is who is the exploiter and who is the exploited party.  In my opinion it really all depends on your own position in the world, as in location, occupation, and even who you know.  I’d guess both parties feel like the are the exploited ones and the exploiters.  Either way I can understand how both India and Indiana are both the exploiters.  Each wants to do what is best for themselves first, as they should.  Although I don’t have much opinion on who is the victim here I do have an opinion on what Indiana should do.  I think it would be smart for them to use outsourcing with India, because in the end they will be saving a lot more money, and they need to commit to it.  It’s not a matter of public opinion, it’s a matter of doing what is best for yourself, and Indiana should do just that. 

Intellectual property was made from creativity, software, applications, your Youtube channel ext.  It is important for people to share their ideas so we can work together and make progress as humans.  It is also important that we are able to protect our original ideas, such as a trademark.  It is so easy for people to go online and copy someones idea and not give credit to the creator without anyone knowing.  This I think makes people feel more timid to sharing their ideas because they don’t want them to get stolen.  As a society it is important that we feel open and trusting to share ideas, because who knows what the next great invention is unless we speak up.  The worst part is, is that their are many selfish and un-thoughtful people out there who will steal or copy creations.  Music and photographs and painting are creative ideas that many people want for themselves, and are very easily acquired.  Even more easily obtained are ideas, and those are fairly difficult to trademark.  My advice would be to share your great ideas with the right people.

Module 4

Growing up I have alway been very artistic and surrounded myself with artsy friends. At seventeen a friend named Jack and I came up with the idea to make a blog and put all of our friends art on it to share it with each other.  After a while Jack thought to make it a webpage and we could continually add art to it, it felt like a journal the seven of us shared.  Jack likes to talk, so soon after the first few posts other people at our high school knew about our webpage. We received many compliments and a few rude remarks, but what was most surprising was that other people wanted to share their creations also!

We thought to turn this journal into an online magazine with issues coming out once every two months. This way we would have time to design the layouts, and gather the submissions. We came up with the name Blown, because a friend Kaden was saying how a lot of the art is really “mind blowing” and every time you read threw an issue your mind will be blown. To better define what we are now, this is our mission statement- “Blown Magazine is an online publication based in Ogden, Utah that strives to publish artistic and literary content of all kinds in an effort to sponsor creativity. We feature a very diverse assortment of content. Our goal is to promote art and literature and to create a medium for artists and writers to gain exposure. We strive to publicize individual expression. Blown was established in opposition to the cultural lack of individuality. Blown is an adversary of conformity, and an advocate of creativity.”

After the second issue our audience wasn’t just our classmates anymore it started to spread, and by a lot.  You may have heard of the group Only In Ogden. The founder of Only In Ogden, Brian Smith wanted to sponsor us in trade for a bit of advertising.  He was even so generous he gave us an office space in the Only In Ogden building on Washington Blvd.  Although by this time we were all back in school. A few of us moved away to college and the rest were still in high school, so it turned out to be easier working from our homes and communicating over Skype.

To help build our audience we made a Facebook page under the name Blown Magazine.  This helped a lot and it is very user friendly! Easily I can log on and see the page views of each article or post, I can promote posts and view what content is getting the least attention.  This is important to me because I am the Executive Creative Director.  I am in charge of the look and feel our website gives the viewers, and that involves making submissions look their best, advertising what we are looking for, the design and layout of the webpage, logo and anything made to physically promote Blown such as business cards and stickers.  For now the website is a steady flow of content rather then magazine issues, but we are hoping to soon be able to print issues soon! The money we receive comes from advertisers and sponsors.

Blown Magazine has been in business for about two years now.  A few of the original group of seven have left Blown because the passion wasn’t there or they simply didn’t have enough time.  Three of us have been able to take charge with differing roles. Jack is now the Executive Content Director, Noah (whom has been part of the foundation) is the CEO, mostly handling the legal and financial side of things, and my title as said before. With an audience and submitters from various countries, we have also expanded the social aspect by also using Twitter, Gmail, Pintrest, Tumblr, Vine, Youtube and Instagram. If I have interested you at all please check us out on any of these applications, or best yet our web page Blown-Magazine.com

Module 3

According to Thomas L. Friedman offshoring is when a company moves one of their factory’s from one country to another to avoid higher taxes, insurance, and overall production costs. Offshoring in my opinion is a win-win for both the company and the country it has moved to.  It is beneficial to the company for obvious reasons of lower costs.  It is also beneficial to the probably less advanced country it moved to because it is giving people from their jobs.  I only say “less advanced country” because I assume if the company is looking for lower expenses that they wouldn’t go to a more advanced country.  Now outsourcing is when you take a small portion of your business and hire another company to do it for you.  An example of this would be maybe something like a call center.  Say the business doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of it, they can hire an another business to do it for them and just pay them a certain fee or percentage per month. In hindsight offshoring is moving business or factory into another country and outsourcing is more like spreading out your business. Both give a lot more people jobs compared to if companies didn’t use offshoring or outsourcing. 

A supply chain in a way is a products life story from the beginning to the end. It is a network of producers, suppliers, distributors, and retailers. It starts off with a simple idea of the product and ends with you buying it. A supply chain makes it so that many companies can work together in the supply chain process by everyone doing their part.  Wal-Mart uses supply chain to their advantage and are very smart about how they use it, in fact companies will compete to be part of Wal-Marts’ supply chain.  Everyone want’s to be a part of it because of the high profits they will get in return, and with many competitors Wal-Mart is able to get the lowest prices from them.  Thats how we get such low prices from Wal-Mart! They are able to keep track of what sells best and where, and when they need more of a product the message heads back down the supply chain.  This is why you almost never see an empty shelf at Wal-Mart, because they are able to keep it continuously restocked.

Google has changed the world forever.  If you have access to the internet then you have access to Google.  Google has all the information and entertainment you could ever search for. Even by just typing in a few keywords into Googles search bar can give you endless pages of information. Google has affected business in many ways.  One way would be Gmail, a free web based e-mail service.  You can have different groups set so you only have to send an email once and not to every individual of the company. With Google+ you can create your own profile and connect with other coworkers and share documents, photos, and other media. The public can also find out a lot about a business by just Googling them.  The business doesn’t even necessarily have to have their own page, Google will bring up anything related to that business. Having a website for your business is a good idea I think.  That way it isn’t information from others, it is information from the business directly. 

Module Two

As we read further into The World Is Flat the more I am realizing how “flat” we actually are.  Although there is still much more to learn.  Technology is making our daily lives a breeze.  Workflow is just one example of that.  Workflow allows information to be passed between parties, people from all over to collaborate, spellcheck, dictionary, filtering your email, you can even be someones online friend.  Ever heard of online dating?  The basic concept is to make our internet use run a lot more smoother.  An example of workflow that I like to use is Skype.  Communication is a very important part of workflow, and Skype does just that.  It allows people from anywhere in the world to talk with one another.   For example, if you have an important meeting in Paris, France then you may video or voice call into the meeting and you are technically attending it.  Before softwares such as Skype, you would have to travel from place to place to attend such meetings.  Workflow software has made everything easier to do, rather then taking a lot of effort and time to do them as we did in the past.  It has taken an impact on many different fields.  Education, government, entertainment, art, literature, science, and more.

Open source software is basically free community created software from my understanding.  Websites like Wikipedia and Ehow, allowing the community of online users to share information and add it to the site for free.  Anyone can create websites or add to existing open source websites.  No wonder it is also known as community developed software.  You can upload a video of an elephant riding a bicycle backwards on Youtube for anyone to see and anyone to leave comments.  You can add synonyms to a thesaurus to help others to find a different word for their essay.   You can even upload your grandmothers secret receipt for apple pie to a cooking website so everyone can get in on the secret.  The point is, there is so much we can do to be our own authors or contributors using open source software. Rather than just being a consumer, we are able to get others opinions on ideas. 

Outsourcing is something we use all the time!  It is defined as obtaining goods or service from an outside supplier.  A company might send their work to a foreign country for it to be finished by workers there, and then sent back to the company in a very short period of time.  Outsourcing seems to make work a lot easier.  Although it would not be possible without workflow and open source software to to share and collaborate with others.  And the best part is that you can be anywhere in the world and share or receive information from anyone else anywhere.  Something that shocked me was that people are working from their homes for a company that is based across the country.  Some companies have workers that work from there desk at their home and still manage to do the same amount of work (or even more in some cases) then they would if they were actually there!  Workflow software, outsourcing, and open source software have definitely made society a more efficient and a “flatter” place to live.

Module 1

Thomas L. Friedman seems to have a deep understanding of globalization, making the world smaller in a sense that we can connect with one another around the world.  He discusses globalization in three eras, the effects from the fall of the Berlin Wall, and a story of Netscape and the impact it has on us.

First I’d like to discuss the three phases of globalization.  How he put it, globalization 1.0 took place early on in the countries of the world.  The world was changing and the key too it was how much muscle and steam power your country had and how you could deploy it.  The focus of globalization 1.0 was countries them selves globalizing.  People were looking to collaborate or compete with others threw their country.  Religion and Imperialism had a big influence on the government.  In the modern day our focuses on globalizing are much different. 

Furthermore was globalization 2.0, where the main focus was on globalizing companies.  This era was from the 1800s until 2000.  In Friedman’s words “this era shrank the world from a size medium to a size small.”  This is because multi national companies.  In the early years the era was powered by very low transportation cost because of the steam engine and rail road.  The second half telecommunication was invented in many forms making it easier to communicate. Inventions such as the telegraph, telephone, and Internet are some examples.

Globalization 3.0 if the era we are in now.  This era is advancing so quickly it has changed the future dramatically.  In my opinion, for the better.  It’s not only for the countries and companies to further themselves, but also for individuals such as your self.  Information and entertainment is easy access to the common man.  It empowers people to be independent and see themselves in competition with the world.  Most companies want to be the best, and now days it is easier then ever to work together with any one on the globe to be the best.

The fall of the Berlin Wall affected the entire world.  Friedman said it was very surprising to everyone.  In my opinion it was a great thing, it really evened the playing fiend in a since. Germany was no longer isolated from the rest of the world. Democracy became popular.  In result authority influences lost some of their power.  For example I’d like to think of when you are doing a group project, and one student or coworker really just separates themselves from the rest of the group.  It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when that person comes around and is wanting to interact and cooperate, it makes the whole group feel more at ease.

Lastly discussed was the impact Netscape had on the world.  Netscape was the first invented website browser.  A man named Jim Barksdale created an application that could connect modems around the world.  Netscape was sort of one of the first stepping stones to reaching our modern technology we use today.  We use the Internet to connect, educate, entertain, and so much more.  Now days there are browsers to choose from such as Safari, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, ext. I’d like to think of Netscape as the grandfather of these.  In first world countries we use the Internet for everything, and third world countries are almost to that point as well.