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Seems like an interesting idea to allow a debate, and then others can interact one way or the other. Will the debates use stories as mentioned in 'A Whole New Mind?'

Our first debate focuses on the economy. Economists from the Cato Institute and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) have offered opening arguments on what should come next now that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act is law. Take a look to see what they think -- but don't stop there. As with most articles in Knol, these are open to collaboration, so you can rate what you read, submit comments, write full responses (i.e. reviews), or even suggest edits to the author by making changes right in the knol itself.

" Equal-Opportunity Globalization Historically, companies in the United States, Europe and Japan have led globalization, because those countries pushed products and services into developing countries. As the business of offshore sourcing grows, globalization is beginning to become widely accepted elsewhere. With "nearshore" and offshore sourcing, the global equation has changed. Enterprises in developing countries and emerging markets are now reaching into developed economies, offering a talented workforce at a fraction of the price. Developed and developing economies are exploiting each other's markets, economies and labor forces. It is natural to expect that those disadvantaged by globalization - irrespective of market - will protest and make known their issues. Likewise, local politicians and political parties may try to protect jobs and obtain votes through legislation such as the bills currently being debated in four U.S. states aimed at blocking the outsourcing of government work to offshore enterprises. Moreover, unlike previous instances of globalization - in textiles, products and manufacturing - the latest round is occurring almost instantaneously over a vast and sophisticated communication network. This has enabled business, projects, tasks and jobs to be transferred to virtual workforces across the globe quickly and transparently - a trend that is occurring so rapidly as to disorient entire professions, societies and organizations. Changing Nature of Technical Work Another factor making outsourcing attractive is the changing nature of technical work. By 2006, service-oriented architecture (SOA) will be at least partially adopted in more than 60 percent of new, large and systematically oriented application development projects (0.7 probability). The proliferation of Web services and SOA is causing software to be developed in smaller units that are easier to map to business processes. These smaller units are also ideal for an offshore envi

This debate is about the pros and cons of virtual communication and the benefits that it comes with.

Facilitated by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, this session is a virtual link-up with the Flat Classroom Conference in Doha, Qatar and Educon 2.1 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. This event is also our official kick-off event for our www.FutureofEducation.com interview series, sponsored by the KnowledgeWorks Foundation and with support from Elluminate!

While this article starts out about a lawfirm in Birmingham UK that is going to "track down people who make anonymous comments about companies online" it becomes an amazingly poignant article on the very nature of the Internet today and the push pull between anonymous commenting and accountability of the commenter. Push pull between free speech and online identity and brand protection. One person in this article claims that this sort of thing is the sign that the "wild west" of the INternet is coming to an end. Oh dear, I hope someone invents a new one if somehow anonymous commenters are now going to risk such! Also love the article's discussion of the Streisand effect wherein Barbara protested the sharing of some photos of her eroding beachfront which caused a stir and more people looking at the photos than if she had left it alone. This article is going to be a must read for Flat Classroom students and would be great for college-level discussions as well.

Important article that would make a great video story for someone predicting how the Internet is changing - with commenters being hunted down by companies!

"The first is social media is much more than a fad (which you have probably read about, as well.) It's not just that Twitter has been at the heart of the Arab Spring and other social and political developments of recent years. Nor that Facebook has acquired so many millions of users all over the world. It's the fact that people use these new media in such a variety of ways it becomes impossible to distinguish business from pleasure. Wikipedia, for instance, has shown that people not only long to discover, they want to share. The psychological effect on business and public life has been immense; in fact I would say that there is a new business climate of openness"

The social and political impact of new technology long has been debated among observers. Throughout American history, technological innovations - from the movable-type printing press in the 15th century, the telegraph in 1844, and the telephone in 1876 to the rise of radio in the 1920s and coast-to-coast television broadcasting in 1946 - have sparked much speculation.

This article discusses the effects of Mark Zuckerberg's new initiative: to make Internet access available to developing countries. The author emphasizes the Web's use in healthcare; specifically, it is helpful in diagnosis, overall socio-economic conditions in those countries, and spreading information.

This article discusses Wikepedia, which is a website used for community uploading, along with its advantages and disadvantages.

This is another web sites point of view on globalization.

Brief overview and introduction to globalization

Net neutrality is an important issue being addressed by the US government right now to prevent companies from sort of creating their own version of the Internet. These rules are supposed to keep things "open." I'm also sending these to my digiteen students (you can follow digiteen at http://www.twitter.com/digiteen) and Flat Classroom students (http://www.twitter.com/flatclassroom) for work on their project.

Very important overview of "net neutrality" being debated and discussed here in the USA. This would be an important topic to include under government and business for the Flat Classroom Project.