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.