Module 3 pgs. 136-199

Module 3 Pgs. 139-199.

When a company moves its employees or manufacturing to a different location as to avoid taxes or lower costs is offshoring.  This is different from outsourcing.  Outsourcing is when a company moves only a part of its activities away from the rest of the company to lower costs.  Friedman’s book gave us multiple examples of outsourcing like moving taxes to india. The whole tax company didn’t move to India, just the “grunt-work”.  The examples Friedman gave of offshoring were entire companies relocating to China because of cheap labor and low taxes.  Especially when China joined the Word Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.  That attracted more foreign companies to ship their companies to China, because the WTO made business fair for all companies.  Offshoring saves companies from dying off, but there is always a catch.  People will always lose their job, but another person will always gain one.  

A supply chain is the process of producing and distributing sale items.  Walmart is a pro at supply chains because Wal-Mart doesn’t actually make any of the products they sell.  The products come from different companies that sell to Walmart.  Walmart buys from the cheapest and most efficient companies to keep their sale items low in cost.  They are looking for companies that can make and ship their commodities at the lowest price.  Competition between companies is fierce, every company wants to be part of Wal-Mart to make some more profit. Wal-Mart can be very picky about who they partner up with.  They expect low prices so every company is competing to get the lowest price, the best value, and the cheapest means to deliver to walmart distribution centers.  After all, customers always look for bargain prices.  

The walmart strategy is to keep good tabs on where their supplies are and what supplies are needed and where. For example, if a Walmart in Florida isn’t selling many cookbooks, and another Walmart in New York is selling cookbooks like mad, instead of shipping more cookbooks to Florida, they will reroute those cookbooks to New York where the demand is high.  That way there is no surplus of cookbooks sitting on the shelves and there will be no need to put a discount on them just to get them out of the store. Walmart saves money and the cookbooks don’t go to waste.  All of that is possible with the help of technology. Every time a customer’s item is scanned into their system the system sends a message to the supplier telling them how many more products to make.  The supplier then makes that amount and ships them to Walmart where the process is repeated.  Besides Walmart, another company that keeps track of what customers like to buy is Google.

Google is interested in you.  Where you go on the internet, what you look up, Google knows.  The information you look up gets stored at Google.  Google then uses that information to tailor ads to your needs or at least to the topics you search for.  And other companies are adopting that same strategy as well.  So instead of giving you random advertisements, they give you ads that you are actually interested in.  That makes a lot of sense because consumers decide what to buy and not to buy. They are more likely to buy something that they are already interested in. It’s like a cycle where the customer keeps buying what they want and the advertisers keep giving them what they want. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.  Another great thing about Google is that it gives the same information to everyone.  There is no favoritism.  It doesn’t matter if you or me or anybody else is researching some subject, if we all search the same subject, we will all find the same information.  

Module 2 Pg. 77-136

Module 2

Business owners use workflow software.  It’s used to complete complicated business tasks easily.  For example, it makes doing payroll or inventory or any other business task easier.  You type in the information and the computer does the rest.   Let’s say you own a beauty salon you want to use standard software so you can schedule appointments, order shampoo, take inventory, pay your employees and everything else that you need to do on the same standard software.  That way you don’t need to hassle with other programs that are not compatible with each other and your information doesn’t get lost.  Workflow software normally costs you a pretty penny. But there is software out there that won’t cost you a thing, it’s called open source software.    

Open source software is software whose source code is available for modification or enhancement by anyone. Anybody can view and make changes to the original program.  By anybody, I mean computer programmers. They can manipulate or change how the software works.  They may make improvements to it, and they make sure it runs smoothly.  Since it is free, the whole world can use it.  The kids in Mali can use it and learn from it.  And it’s not bad software, it gets the job done and it constantly gets reviewed by other programmers.  Not every source code is made available to the public though.  “Proprietary software” or “closed software” is software that does not make its source code available to the public.  It is owned by a closed group of people, software like Adobe Photoshop, or Microsoft Word are examples of closed software.  You need to pay to download their services, and you can’t legally make changes to their existing software.  Their software is also reviewed constantly and changed, but if you’d like to upgrade you’ll need to buy the newer version.   I bought Microsoft Office 2010 back in 2011, it’s now 2015 and I’m still using the 2010 version.

            Why would you want open source software?  The big deal is that you can use it for free! Yes, free software.  The idea is really great.  I mean who wouldn’t jump at the chance to use free software?  You would save yourself a lot of money, and you would get the job done, right?  I believe that open source software is great for people who don’t want to spend their money, but they want to create something awesome.  You don’t need Photoshop to edit your pictures, and you don’t need Microsoft word to write a paper.  You only need a program that will let you do so.  And there is free software out there that will let you use their services for free.           

Outsourcing is the act of delegating work to people and places that can do that work cheaper, but still in a professional manner. Both chapters of the book have given examples of this, from sending taxes to India to Delta employing housewives in Utah.  Outsourcing is great for big companies because it cuts costs.  You can hire someone to work for your company half way across the world or just in a different state and you can pay them less than you would someone in a closer proximity doing the same job.  Outsourcing is usually done by big companies.  Your company benefits with cut costs and the other guys benefit from the employment.  Those Asian Indians really do benefit from working at the 24/7 call center.  Their paychecks sometimes are more than their parents’ paychecks.  They receive benefits like health care.  They can go to school during the day or on weekends and gain great job skills that will help in the future.  It’s a good job for them.  Lots of people want to work there too.  The American companies are happy to work with them.  But, there is a dark side to outsourcing.  It sometimes means that you or someone you love will lose their job, and it makes it harder for them to get another job doing what they did before.

Workflow software, open source software, and outsourcing are shaping this digital world that we live in.  They allow people from all the four corners of the earth to participate in business and trade.  Since technology is rapidly advancing, the world is moving more and more towards becoming a digital society.

Module 1 (Pg. xi-77) "The World is Flat" Friedman

Thomas L. Friedman explains in his book “The World is Flat” his opinion on how society became digital.  What I mean by “how society became digital” is how did society come to have a lot of electronic technology? In his book, Friedman breaks up world history into three phases, or globalizations, that explain how our society went from zero electronic technology to having technology affecting us daily.

The first globalization approximately went from the years 1492-1800.  These years were about exploration. Finding new places and finding resources that could help countries develop.  This opened up the trade market between countries. Now countries had more options and what mattered to every country was how many resources they had and how well could they use them for their benefit. Countries were now more integrated than they had been previously.

The second globalization went from 1800-2000. The Great Depression and World Wars one and two were hurdles that slowed the globalization dash down.  But, even with those obstacles many new inventions came forth, starting off with steam engines and railroads, then moving toward telephones, satellites, and next the computer towards the 21^st century.  Friedman argues that Multinational companies were leaders in the change because they “went global for markets and labor” (pg. 9).  Things like the railroad or cars made transportation easier and telephones and email made communication easier and quicker.  Costs of transportation and communication went down.  Computers could help businesses be more productive.  What mattered to the multinational companies was how they could use the inventions to better their company.  Friedman also explains how the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 also played a role in the second globalization.  To put it in his words the fall of the berlin wall “tipped the balance of power across the world toward those advocating democratic, consensual, free-market-oriented governance, and away from those advocating authoritarian rule with centrally planned economies”(pg. 52). Communism was out and democracy was in.  That was really good because it gave more people a lot more freedom.  It was power to the people! And now governments and economies would be built up by the people, for the people.

Globalization number three is from 2000 till the current time. Now, instead of countries and businesses calling the shots, individuals have computer power to spread ideas, business plans, and communicate with others at little cost to them.  Fiber Optic cables are all over the world interconnecting just about everybody.  They can relay a message in a matter of a few seconds to anybody in the whole world. That is what makes computers awesome!  But, the computers that we use today aren’t the same as the ones from the 90’s. Back in the day there was no Google Chrome or Wikipedia. When computers were just starting out, they were used for basic word processing and their email system was not very good.  People could not connect with each other if they used different programs.  Every computer had individual data and information, but there was no easy way to share it with lots of other computers.  You could only email computers on your same network. That’s when a little company called Netscape saved the day.  Netscape created a way for computers to connect and it didn’t matter if you used a Mac or other PC! “What Netscape did was bring a new killer app – the browser—to this installed base of PCs, making the computer and its connectivity inherently more useful for millions of people.” (Friedman pg. 63) What is a browser you might ask? It’s an application for your computer that connects you to the internet.  It’s like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. It’s basically something you click on that transports you to the internet. Now every computer user had access to the internet.  Internet access made it a whole lot easier to share photos, documents, and other data with others.  Families could connect more with each other and businesses could be more productive.

Computers make up a big part of our lives these days.  It’s hard to not use them on a daily basis.  They’re in our schools, work places, and our houses.  We use them for information, entertainment, and even social interaction. I can’t even imagine what it would be like not to have a computer or a cellphone.  And if there was no internet or browsers to connect me to the internet, my computer would be much less helpful.

  

Thomas L.Friedman - Farrar, Straus and Giroux - 2006