Group items tagged

This article by Charles Fishman echoes more of what Friedman calls 'Multiple Identity Disorder' in a flattening world. We as individuals are trying to sort out "the tensions among our identities as consumers, employees, citizens, taxpayers, and shareholders." This article pulls the covers off of Wal-Mart, revealing some of the business partnerships they have had with companies like Vlasic, Lovable, Levi Strauss, and MasterLock- and how those companies have lost huge profits, and in the case of Vlasic, gone bankrupt because of their partnership with Wal-Mart. But, says Fishman, for suppliers, "the only thing worse than doing business with Wal-Mart may be not doing business with Wal-Mart". In a flattened world where one company has so much power, suppliers have few options if they want to stay afloat. Wal-Mart is taking its business to foreign companies at an accelerated rate. And as consumers with lower incomes due to the off-shoring of jobs, we also feel that we have little choice: we have to buy the cheapest brand. Seems that the Flattened world has also flattened individual choice.

This article is part review and part thought-provoker in relation to education and Friedman's Flat world. The article primarily reviews the flattening forces, in very little detail, but throws a twist in at the end as it talks specifically about the education system. It is suggested that classrooms become "flat" as well so that everyone is given the same chance to be involved.

An article reviewing the economic effects of outsourcing, measuring both goods and services, since 1963. It also discusses the impact on wages and the employment rate. I chose this article for this week based on the list of "Flatteners" Freidman described, both because they were included in his list and because it seems to me to be an important feature of globalization--that in the ruthless competition of capitalism, there will always be a value in inequality to create the cheapest sources of labour. This is something mentioned very early in the chapter (as related to the moderate poverty of the Soviet system) but I believe it's also important to think about when picturing a world that is increasingly connected and a playing field that seems equally leveled.

OpenSource.com focuses on how open sources (flattener #4) are applied to different areas in life including business, education, government, health, law, and more. They focus on real experiences and ways to solve problems in the open source way. Explore the webist via the tabs at the top of the page.

Convergence 1 - (pg 204 of 3.0 edition, Friedman) "The convergence of the ten flatteners had created a whole new platform. It is a global, Web-enabled platform for multiple forms of collaboration. This platform enables individuals, groups, companies and universities anywhere in the world to collaborate - for the purposes of innovation, production, education, research, entertainment, and, alas, war-making - like no creative platform ever before" This website provides free online courses in a variety of topics. It collaborates with Universities, Libraries Museums, and Professional Associations across the world to provide these resources. It is really free learning, the only fee is if you want a Certification of Participation at the end. Otherwise it is a really great online set up for learning, that goes week by week (much like our D2L, or eConestoga) with activities, readings, articles, discussion boards, videos etc.

Convergence 1 - (pg 204 of 3.0 edition, Friedman) "The convergence of the ten flatteners had created a whole new platform. It is a global, Web-enabled platform for multiple forms of collaboration. This platform enables individuals, groups, companies and universities anywhere in the world to collaborate - for the purposes of innovation, production, education, research, entertainment, and, alas, war-making - like no creative platform ever before" This website offers courses from "top universities and organizations worldwide". It allows students to listen to lectures, take quizzes, submit assignments and receive peer feedback. These can be taken from anywhere in the world and are taken at your own pace in a blended learning environment.

The P2P sharing site, Pirate Bay, recently was raided by Swedish police, again, for copyright violations. File sharing, whether 'illegal' downloading or corporate information, is one of Friedman's flatteners, allowing free information sharing and information repositories to flourish. The article discusses whether Pirate Bay, one of the world's largest file sharing search sites, will ever come back after such a seizure.

This is a short article from the Globe and Mail addressing the concerns of "Cloud Computing" in the business world, which is relevant as one of Friedman's flatteners. It also links to chapter three through the second topic in terms of horizontal business where you are able to do more yourself, the same principle is true with cloud computing - more can be done in-house with its use limiting the need for other tech/people.

This journal article refutes Friedman's view by looking at how globalization creates a more uneven world and capitalism tends to develop unevenly geographically. It is an interesting refute to Friedman's perspective.

SEO stands for "search engine optimization." It is the process of getting traffic from the "free," "organic," "editorial" or "natural" search results on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.

I choose this website on search engine optimization to relate to Friedman's ninth flattener: In-forming. This resource explains how making your website popular through optimization influences the success of the web page.

Richard Paul's article is about the increasing need, in this intertwined, globalized world for us to foster critical thinking in our children. As we have already learned from both 'The World is Flat' and 'The Shift', in this flattened world, simply obtaining basic skills or knowing the answers to certain questions will not be enough. Paul argues that our current K-12 school system is not breeding creative students, and is not giving students a chance in the ever-changing work landscape. He maintains that in order to keep up with globalization, we need to be fostering in our children the ability to problem solve creatively, to anticipate patterns and meanings, to think abstractly, to ask 'why', and to be able to communicate, collaborate, and negotiate with others.

It's not what you physically look at that matters in life, it's what you see in it. This article was interesting to me in how it relates to the concepts in The Shift and The Flatteners. Both authors emphasize the need to stand out and be the best that you can be and this article explains how a person's perception (or a change in perception) can help attain this.

This program is program developed specifically for gymnastics clubs. It manages classes, fees, and even can keep track of inventory and sales at your front desk. Parents can access this from home and fill in registration information, sign up online for available classes and even make monthly payments without ever needing to come into the gym.

This web-tool was originally a special module of the web tools offered by Tools for Organizations since 2000. However, in 2010 it was released a stand-alone software for scheduling and managing volunteers for events and projects. The system allows volunteers to sign up for hours, once the event is completed the staff member then confirms these hours, and these hours are logged and tracked.

Constant contact is an online marketing tool. It allows users to create professional looking emails with easy to use templates. It also provides many other tools to incorporate into your emails such as surveys, RSVP's for events, coupons, Facebook promotions and much more.