Module 13

Another semester and another few credits checked off the list on our way to graduation.  I have to say that since transferring to Weber State University, this Wired Society course has been my favorite thus far.  We are all constantly bombarded with the latest and greatest technologies, each one more exciting and more innovative than the last, and it has been hugely entertaining for me to have taken a look back at how it all started and how far we have advanced in this digital era.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first chapters of our text, The World Is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman.  Like I have said in the early blog posts, it was a nostalgic experience for me to read and then reflect on the beginning of the internet, Netscape, and the first days of emailing.  Yes it makes me feel SO OLD, but hey that's life isn't it?  Looking back and reminiscing on the good ol' days is an activity that I have always enjoyed, and I feel as if I got to do it quite a lot throughout this semester, and with such captivating material too.  When you really look at how rapidly technology has been developing I cannot help but feel intrigued, don't you!?  It tends to inevitably draw your attention to the future, and oh the possibilities!  Maybe some day soon we all will have a know-it-all Logic, and mine will be honorably named Joe!

The weeks we studied outsourcing, offshoring, globalization and workflow software I must admit were not exactly my cup of tea, although I am pleased to now be more knowledgable and informed in those important affairs of the modern world.  Bring it on India!  Ain't nothing wrong with a little healthy competition to motivate you right?

My very favorite aspect of this class by all means has to be the blog.  I am always intimidated by online tasks that are foreign to me, and who knows why I had creating a blog imagined as such a convoluted burden, but it was so simple even I could do it!  I love to write and hardly ever pick up a journal these days, so the blog is something I am very excited to continue on with.  In addition to my newfound blogging hobby (okay so far said hobby is in the very early stages but in my mind I am already a dazzling and enthralling blogger who is highly successful and of course very relatable to her audience), I have also decided to continue learning more about technology.  This class has inspired me to take some sort of computer class so I can increase my digital skills and remain with the times!  Wait maybe I need to GET with the times first before I can REMAIN with the times right?

Module 10

How funny was the short story A Logic Named Joe, written over sixty years ago???  At first I found the narrative a little difficult to lumber through (okay not just at first but for the entire ten pages).  Perhaps due to the red-necky accent this Logics Company maintenance man was supposed to have?  I kept thinking: come on Sir, speak properly!  I guess I expected a very charming and maybe somewhat formal style of short story writing for 1946.  Also, during the first few paragraphs I was a little confused thinking: wait wait wait, this vision-phone connection...isn't that the same thing as Face Time? Or Skype? What the...did they have that in the 40's??  Okay though, before you think me incompetent and a bit daft, just know that it was certainly by the end of the first page, MAYBE the beginning of the second page that I finally saw the irony: that ol' Logic named Joe is GOOGLE!

It was very interesting for me to read how someone sixty plus years ago would describe what we take for granted every day, the internet.  They sure did describe it quite spot on though wouldn't you say? Okay so yes it was on a bit of a grander and more ambitious scale, helping every day people with magnificent and outlandish inventions that would go on to make them millions, but all I saw in good ol' trouble making Joe was OUR good friend Google!  Joe would be way more awesome simply for the fact the he delivers the number one best answer, fact checked and everything, no need to scroll through needless advertisements cleverly camouflaged as credible websites.  But the idea was the same, all the information you could ever need just at one stop: your marvelous little computer, err...logic!

I did stop to ponder the prediction of it all ruining civilization though.  I think that was either just written that way for entertainment value, or the author of this short story had a very negative view on modern man and modern societies.  But actually, as I wrote that last sentence I realized the author is most likely entirely correct.  If we could have a computer give us very simple instructions for how to counterfeit money, lie to our spouse, rob a bank, of course more people than not would do it! Haha what was I thinking!?  So I will just be grateful that we seem to have found a happy balance with Google.  We can still get all sorts of information, from counterfeiting money to ancient cannibalistic tribes, but we can have it all without it ruining society and destroying our personal lives.  And sorry Mr. Maintenance Man's wifey at home: we DO live in a world where our neighbors can all Google us and find out our real age, and our husband's high school exes and other former flames do indeed contact him (thanks Facebook), but I will take those cons in exchange for all the pros that such a vast amount of information sharing brings us via the internet.

Hopefully the internet will never evolve to a catastrophe like Joe was, because we would have the same problem.  Our modern society now completely relies on it!  I realized just how much we would miss our modern technologies this past month when I bought a new car that wasn't compatible with my iPhone 5 and I went about two weeks before pleading for help over Facebook and finding out (from MY high school ex, hahaha) that there is an adapter!  Just imagine my pain: I spent two whole weeks with only 1 CD and the radio!!!!

Module 9

Before beginning this IST 1100 course and reading The World Is Flat I honestly had NO IDEA that Dell computers and laptops were made to order.  I had just assumed that just like every other PC you were able to just saunter into a Best Buy and pick one up.  Knowing  that Dell is in other words special order, I can already tell you that it is not the computer for me.  I always need immediate satisfaction and I barely have the patience to wait for any of the items I purchase online.  What makes Dell unique is it's supply chain management and it's built to order approach.  Dell delivers individual PC's that are configured to the customer's specifications.  I can see the appeal in that approach, and I suppose I could manage to wait if it meant I was getting a laptop with a custom design made specially for me!
In order to provide efficient service and production of goods, Dell uses multiple suppliers for most of the key components that go into their products.  All you have to do as a consumer is pick up the phone or jump online and start your order.  You choose exactly what you need and depending on the inventory levels of certain components you just might get discounted upgrades on extra memory for example.  Just like the text says: "today memory might be on sale, tomorrow it might be CD-ROMS".  Dell has remained a very efficient company because it only produces based on the demand, which is a valuable skill to have in a business based in technology, especially with how rapidly it changes.
Does Al-Qaeda have a supply chain?  Indeed they do.  After googling the question I saw in a few different places that Al-Qaeda is nothing but a "mutant supply chain", and the sad part is is that it is fueled in part by the purchase of illegal drugs like heroin here in America.  Al-Qaeda raises money, recruits victims, and brainwashes them into thinking they are doing good by becoming a candidate for their suicide missions.
Because oil is not abundant for all countries the curse of it lies in the fact that it is a highly valuable resource that is fought over.  If countries and powers are fighting over it now imagine how bad the fighting will be when the oil supply dwindles down to almost nothing.

Module 8

I remember when I got my first email account, tannith@rocketmail.com (remember rocketmail!?).  I was twelve years old and we had recently moved to Utah from South Africa.  My dad was working in the IT department at BYU, and he set it up for me and I'm sure gave me a short tutorial on how to navigate through rocketmail, although I don't remember exactly if he did or not.  The best part about having an email account was that I could communicate now very easily with my ONE friend in South Africa who had email, Nicki Pillay.  Back then (we are talking twenty years ago people), the emails were very few and far between, with neither one of us being too enthralled with this new way of communicating.  In fact I am fairly positive that I still sent her snail mail communications too.  Although my very computer savvy father was responsible for my first exposure to computers, I fortunately had a computer course in my 7th grade year, at Dixon Middle School in Provo, and this was the beginning of my very limited education on computers.

I say limited because I have always felt that I was just ahead of the digital explosion.  For example: I know many people right around my age that are NOT that computer savvy (much like myself), but it is almost impossible to encounter someone just a few years younger who does not know at least all the basics.  I used to always be so impressed with my friends that were just three or four years younger than me when it came to their digital skills, and I would ask them how and when they learned such amazing proficiency!  The answer was always: I had a class in middle school and high school, didn't you?  No sir I did not!  I feel robbed because I certainly never had the privilege of learning all these necessary digital techniques in my younger years, when it was FREE!  Buuuuuuut let's focus on what I DID learn I suppose...back to my 7th grade computer class...

I should be grateful for that class, it's the only reason I can type the 40+ wpm that I am always fortunately able to putter across the finish line with, no matter how long I have been away from a keyboard.  The only thing I actually remember learning is typing, we had these hefty wooden boxes that slid over our keyboards to prevent cheating, and we were taught the basics of where to place our fingers as a home base, and the computer screen had an animation of our hands showing us which digit to use for the next entry by lighting it up. (Oh it's all coming back to me now, memories!)

After middle school I somehow made it all through high school without any computer classes, well...wait a minute.  I think I did have one, but high school is when I learned I could just take off in my car and play hooky instead of going to class, so that would explain why I don't remember any other digital courses. Oh how I regret so much of my academic youth!  So, fast forward a decade, almost two, and I have fortunately gleaned enough skill to get by in this digital age.  True it takes asking for help quite often, and that reminds me: I need to register for a computer class next semester!

Essay 6

The United States of America has a hugely important foundation in trade.  It was one of the reasons our country was settled, and it is one of the reasons our country has thrived.  Although trade has evolved over the years (Boston Tea Party anyone??), the fact still remains that trading is a key element to American life and American traditions.  Free trade took over mercantilism with the American Revolution and the free trade policies that our country still follows today resemble the policies that began to take hold back then.

Doing a google search of free trade led me to the following definition: free trade is a policy in international markets in which governments do not restrict imports or exports.  Some governments however do use the practice of protectionism with the intent of promoting local employment.  I am in favor of free trade with minimal protectionism which to me is just another way that we can be forced to follow the rules and regulations.  And I rebel against all the rules and regulations!!!  I love all things foreign, so I don't understand how anyone could NOT want the entire world practicing free and open trade every day!  I think free trade is important because it drives competition.  Without free trade and without competition I could see us becoming lazy and complacent.

In order to continue to compete in this ever increasingly flat world you have to have the skills of what Friedman refers to as "The New Middlers".  These are the new middle class jobs in which you will need certain skills that are suited to the flat world.  Among those skills are playing well with others, you have to be able to communicate well and collaborate well with people of all different cultures and backgrounds, in addition to being able to adapt to change easily.  In this digital world where sometimes it seems like great change occurs just overnight, it will not benefit you if you are inflexible and incapable of adapting to change.  Also on Friedman's list were synthesizers, leveragers, explainers, orchestrators and passionate personalizers, and of course all of these skills must be displayed while being green.  We have learned nothing if we have not learned by now the importance of sustaining our planet!

This brings us now to CQ+PQ>IQ.  Directly translated that means: Curiosity Quotient plus Passion Quotient is greater than Intelligence Quotient.  On this I could not agree more with Friedman.  Passion has the capability of being infectious and motivating.  What easier way to make yourself marketable than if you were working in a field in which you felt passionate about?  I recently got a job at a plasma donation center and I could not for the life of me figure out why my husband was being so negative about my new position as a phlebotomist.  He kept saying things that indicated he did not expect me to last for more than a week.  Finally it hit me: it was because HE could NEVER do the job of a phlebotomist, so in his mind he didn't see how anybody could!  Fortunately for me the human body is one of my PASSIONS and something I have a great CURIOSITY about, so I felt incredibly LUCKY to have this job offered to me! I couldn't wait to start digging around in people's veins!  And because of that I have been enjoying every minute of my new position, looking forward to moving up and progressing within the company.  Living in a world where there are so many educational tools right at our fingertips, curiosity is an increasingly valuable trait to have.

Essay 6

Module 5 Essay

Living in the age of technology which increases in leaps and bounds with every passing year I often think to myself: how on earth did we survive without this!?  With the mention of airline traveling in our text let's use that as an example.  Think of buying an airline ticket before the internet and computers.  You probably had to travel to the airport first of all just in order to make a reservation!  The triple convergence took all the latest and greatest technological advances of our time and combined them together to create more convenience, more productivity, and even more innovation, or as the book states "multiple forms of collaboration".  Education is at the fingertips of computer owners across the world, research too.  Entertainment is supplied very easily to bored housewives all across America because of the convergence of media and technology.  But I sometimes wonder, is all this increasing dependence on technology hurting us?  The more we use the computers for every little thing in our day to day lives, the less human interaction we have.  And the less human interaction we have the less likely we are to make meaningful connections with actual people and the more likely we are to become more and more dependent on our laptops and tablets.  I can't help but wonder: is that maybe harmful for the future of humanity?  Wait a minute...are we slowly being conditioned to become robots!??? I'm kidding, I'm kidding (kind of!).

In the whole India/Indiana debacle all I left with was a reinforced hatred of politicians!  What a travesty it was to let stupid politics get in the way of a venture that was to be beneficial to both the tax paying residents of Indiana and the hard working citizens of struggling India.  In regards to that I would say that both India and Indiana were exploited, and they were exploited by the politicians who used the situation to gain support for their own shady agendas. I do not see or understand the problem of outsourcing and saving 8 million dollars of tax payer money?  Why shouldn't the Indians be rewarded for their hard work in getting the best education available to them and trying hard to provide for their families?  Why shouldn't the best value be applied and why should the tax payers be forced to apply more funds for the exact same type of work, but done by only Americans?  It is ridiculous and bad business practice.   

Intellectual property is exactly what it sounds like: ideas.  Just like you would patent an idea or invention, the issue of ownership is arising for your innovative technological ideas.  Advances in technology are being counterfeited and ideas are being stolen.  So, with more and more innovation emerging from open-source collaborations and communities, intellectual property law has to adjust-or else we as a society will not get the benefits or be protected from the drawbacks of a flat world.

Essay 4

These days you can barely even swing your Fendi purse without knocking over ten computer nerds, so fortunately completing the homework for your Digital Society class is a breeze!  I reached out to my younger brother, Stuart Jakins, who has worked at a company called SecurityMetrics as a Technical Support Specialist for the past five years.

According to Wikipedia, SecurityMetrics is "a multinational merchant data security and compliance company headquartered in Orem, Utah" that fields "over 132,000 calls a month and employs nearly 400 employees".  The company is a Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) vendor that also qualifies as a PCI Forensic Investigator, which I thought was quite interesting.  If I had to work there that is the department that I would request!

Stuart spends his shift on the computer as well as on the phone with customers who are typically business owners and merchants.  Technical support includes and covers the set up of firewalls and security for the computer networks that run the business.  Storage of credit card numbers on the merchant's computers requires documentation of the processing and due to the sensitive and private information, proof of antivirus software and firewalls is a necessity.  Also, if a merchant is trying to process credit cards through an IP address or a website, then SecurityMetrics first scans the IP address and website to verify the safety and security.  Stuart summarized his job detail as explaining security measures to merchants and business owners to ensure their compliance with the standards that the credit card companies enforce.

Hmm...sounds quite boring and confusing to me!  After further reading online about SecurityMetrics I learned that it was started in 2000 by a man named Brad Caldwell.  The goal of the company was to test website security, soon becoming officially certified as a security assessor for the four major credit cards in the United States: Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.  Okay so now it made a bit more sense to me: a security assessor.  After reading that I understood more completely than I did from interviewing my brother. (Sorry Stu!)

Module 3 Essay

            We know now that outsourcing is when a company employs individuals in a foreign land to complete certain elements of the business.  Offshoring is when a business relocates an entire factory and completes the entire process on foreign soil.  It may be an American company but it is operating solely out of somewhere like China.  Why might companies choose offshoring as opposed to keeping their entire business in the United States?  It’s all because of the bottom line, and the fact of the matter is that if China can produce the same product the same way for less cost and lower taxes, then to China we will go!  Cheaper labor is not the only incentive for businesses however.  Another motivating factor, according to our text, is “to serve that foreign market without having to worry about trade barriers and to gain a dominant foothold there”.  With a market as large as China, why wouldn’t American companies want to be on the front lines for millions of consumers?

            Consumers are the driving force behind all these different companies.  We as consumers are the ones spending our money buying the products that are being manufactured, and it is our opinion that counts.  Companies need to know what it is that we want to buy so they can provide it before we have lost interest or found it elsewhere.  This is where supply-chaining becomes important.  We want the newest and latest and we want it NOW!  If you can’t provide it to us now then there are plenty of your competitors just waiting for our business.  As one of the best supply chain operators of all time, Wal-Mart has pioneered innovations and techniques that keep its inventory stocked and affordable.  Wal-Mart became the biggest retailer in the world because it focused on new technology.  They keep their prices down by purchasing directly from the manufacturers, building their own distribution centers in order to accommodate those manufacturers, and then providing their own delivery vehicles.  Wal-Mart was one of the first companies to introduce computers for tracking inventory and providing that information to suppliers.  Wal-Mart knew that the more efficient it could be in tracking what the customers were buying, the more it could tailor the supply to the consumer’s needs.  With the use of RFID (radio frequency microchips) Wal-Mart is able to monitor every aspect of market activity which gets them that much closer to a complete balance in supply and demand.  As a consumer I am glad to know that if I am ever caught in a hurricane in Florida I know that Wal-Mart will already be one step ahead of me and stocking its stores with beer for the masses.  Who would ever want to be stuck in a hurricane without beer?  Thank you Wal-Mart, we appreciate you keeping an eye on the weather!

            Flattener #9 is In-forming…in other words: GOOGLE.  How did we ever live without Google is what I want to know?  But Google is a double edged sword, because although it is nice to be so informed about anything and everything, this also means that any blemish on our record is not so easily hidden.  As a former wild child I cringe at the thought of my name being googled.  In the digital age NOTHING is forgotten!  It is great for businesses however; they can know almost anything about their employees before they hire them!  Google offers other benefits to companies in the name of advertising and search results.  According to google.com/economicimpact, 97 percent of internet users look online for local products and services.  I know I do!  If Siri does not suggest your business then you and I will never meet! 

Module 2 Essay

         After sailing along through last week’s reading and homework I was feeling awfully confident about this course and what it entailed…and then this week happened!  Suddenly our required text became a terrorizing entity, filled with foreign dialogue which was obviously meant to discombobulate me!  So, after reading each paragraph somewhere between 3 and 10 times each and many texts and SOS calls to my geeky father, I think I have gained at least an elementary comprehension of workflow software and community developed software.  I pretty much already knew enough about outsourcing, phew, although I did not know about the origins of outsourcing being so closely linked with the Y2K fiasco, what a fun walk down memory lane that was!  What came to mind was being 17 and drinking Boones Farm at a New Year’s Eve party with everyone taking a very vigilant pause the moment the clock struck 12.  Fortunately the modern world as we know it did not implode…thank you India!

            I guess this week’s reading was so difficult for me because I never really understood the foundation and basic mechanism of the internet, so all this talk of codes and “footballs” left me feeling a sense of: HUH?  I think that the first step in the development of workflow software was the standardization of the way that material was digitized, in order to produce a seamless digital flow.  An office workplace would all need to be on the same page in other words, with each individual’s software being compatible with the next.  Fortunately somewhere along the way somebody (I wonder who exactly) designated standard, universal languages for computer applications. For example: HTML is the language used for designing and publishing documents.  So when I think of specific examples of workflow software being used I think of amazon.com, where I often shop.  I make the order through my computer, the order is then submitted to the supplier (who sometimes can be a company outside of amazon), my card gets charged and that spurs the merchandise being shipped off to me.  Or, let’s consider a simple visit to the doctor.  In some circumstances your doctor can input your prescription into his tablet, and by the time you arrive at the pharmacy it has already been filled and is ready for pickup!

            Open source software is important because it empowers individuals.  I see it as a global collaboration in order to produce the most innovative and efficient software.  As Friedman says in our text: “The primary goal of the free software movement is to get as many people as possible writing, improving, and distributing software for free, out of a conviction that this will empower everyone and free individuals from the grip of global corporations”.  We live in the information age, and because of open source software everyone across the world can fortunately be living in the information age with us privileged Americans.

            Workflow software standardized and compartmentalized the flow of real work, therefore making it easier for companies to outsource some or all of the labor .  When we think of outsourcing I am sure the majority of us think of that very frustrating call that we have all made, trying to set up cable service with some heavy accented foreigner (who we are supposed to believe is named Sunshine) that you just, for the life of you, cannot understand!  Outsourcing vastly reduces the overhead of businesses, and despite the frustrating strain that we as Americans have to make just to stumble through those disheartening phone calls, what matters most to corporate America is the bottom line.  If Sunshine will take a phone job for a fraction of the price that her American counterpart will, well…you get the gist.  But hey, think of all those Indian families that we are feeding by our need to get cable TV set up before the new season of The Walking Dead premieres!  

Module 1 Essay

To prepare myself for this assignment I first looked up the word “globalization” in the dictionary.  Although this wasn’t the first time I had heard the word, it was indeed the first time that I had needed to pay such close attention to its meaning.  The definition that I felt was easiest to keep in mind during my reading was: worldwide integration and development.  NOW I understood the use of the word globalization when discussing Columbus!

In his book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman discusses the three great eras of globalization, beginning with Globalization 1.0 which began in 1492 with Columbus setting sail and thus opening up trade between the Old and New Worlds.  This era of globalization was about discovery and laying the threads that would eventually tie the world together.  As Friedman says: “…the dynamic force driving the process of global integration, was how much brawn-how much muscle, how much horsepower, wind power, or, later, steam power-your country had and how creatively you could deploy it.”  To me this was the most exciting era of globalization.  How exciting it must have been to begin discovering new and different lands, tasting their foods and meeting their people.  What an exciting world that must have been to live in.

Globalization 2.0 took place beginning right around the year 1800 and lasting up until the year 2000.  This era was driven by multinational companies that were driving down the costs of first: transportation, followed by the falling costs of telecommunication.  Globalization 3.0 is what has totally leveled the playing field, according to Friedman.  It has done that by empowering individuals with knowledge and access to technology.  Not only is the power in the hands of individuals now, it is in the hands of a much more diverse group of individuals. 

To sum up the difference between the three eras of globalization I would have to say that with each progression into a new era the power trickled down to where it presently is: at the fingertips of ordinary individuals.  In the beginning with Globalization 1.0 the driving force lay in the hands of entire countries and the monarchs who led them.  Fast forward to Globalization 2.0 and you will see that it was multinational companies and the Industrial Revolution responsible for that boom.  Finally arriving at Globalization 3.0 where a 7 year old child in a third world country could possibly gain access to information and technology that his parents never dreamed of having.

The fall of the Berlin wall was a central event that led up to Globalization 3.0.  According to Friedman it “allowed us to think of the world differently-to see it as a seamless whole.” He goes on to say that “before 1989, you could have an Eastern policy or a Western policy, but it was hard to think about having a global policy.”  Without the fall of the Berlin wall we would potentially still be living in the times before Globalization 3.0, so this was an extremely important event to someone like Friedman, who calls himself a “free-trader” and a “compassionate flatist”.

This brings us now to the topic of Netscape. Aaaaah Netscape.  Until now I had completely forgotten about Netscape!  I feel lucky enough to be an age where I was around at the beginning of Globalization 3.0, I remember using Netscape!  My father, who is a computer engineer at BYU, set up my first email account for me at age 12, a rocketmail account that I still have! Oh the nostalgia!  And Netscape plays a huge role in that nostalgia now that I think about it.  Before Netscape what else was there for a young 12 year old immigrant from Africa to enable internet usage?  I precisely remember the day that my best friend back home got email, and can I even explain the excitement of two thirteen year old best friends who were now able to communicate so efficiently across an ocean!?  All in the same day!?  Netscape was responsible for bringing the World Wide Web to everyone.  Before Netscape the internet was a place for computer geeks and scientists to share information.  Netscape, as the world’s first widely popular commercial browser, brought this phenomenon to everyday people far and wide.  I just feel lucky enough to remember this all happening! Wow am I that old?