IST 1100 Module 5

A fundamental element of technical advancement and evolution in the world is that it takes time. Just because Edison developed a working light bulb, it didn't mean that the world was lit up over night. The progression of technology in the world is a process and it involves countless people and countless ideas. The triple convergence Thomas L. Friedman talks about in The World Is Flat is a good example of this long process with many elements that ultimately culminates in a complete shift of how the world functions.

The triple convergence is made up of three individual convergences, each building upon the previous to create a shift in the technological world. The first convergence was when all of the ten flatteners Freidman talked about in his book came to be. Each flattener was one step closer to a flattened world and once all were established, businesses and individuals could do things no previous generation in the history of the world could have imagined doing.

The second convergence was the process of businesses around the world adapting to the new available technology as outlined in the flatteners. Companies started to shift the ways they did business, utilizing outsourcing and offshoring, taking advantage of workflow software, better networking, going digital, etc.. There were so many things companies began to do and the world started to change.

The third convergence began with the wall coming down and the decline of communistic ideology. An entire new group of people, billions of people, suddenly came onto the playing field from India, China, and The Soviet union. With so many more minds and so many more countries participating in this flattened world economy, the world again changed forever, it converged.

The triple convergence is so important because it has defined the way human beings interact and trade. We all share this planet and we all require certain things ie. food and shelter. What would our world be like if we still lived like cavemen and we didn’t try to improve the world around us? This is why the triple convergence is important, because it marks a huge push forward for mankind. We can communicate so quickly and efficiently, we can all have nice things if we want them. Apple mass produces its’ iphone and millions of people around the world are able to buy it and do so many things with them. Would we still survive without them? Of course, but do they, and other products like them, help us enjoy life a little more? Or a little differently? The triple convergence has improved so many millions of people’s quality of life.

The India-Indiana story is a very interesting one. At first I was thinking how awful it was that the project was outsourced and that jobs were being taken from American workers. And how ironic it was that they were updating the unemployment system. But then Fred points out that from the other side of the argument, the state was saving millions of dollars that could be used to build schools and create jobs, and it would benefit Indiana tech workers. It really is not as cut and dry as it first seemed. So who was exploited? And who was the exploiter? The Indiana government exploited the money saving option of outsourcing the job to an Indian company. India exploited the fact that they knew no one would be able to outbid them. It really is just the nature of the system. It makes sense from certain viewpoints, but also at times seems unethical.

The last section I wanted to talk about is the importance of intellectual property. We live in a large world, and a smart world. there are always new ideas and new products and services hitting the world’s markets. The problem is that there are people out there that instead of coming up with their own ideas, they wait for the opportunity to copycat someone elses idea, their intellectual property. Without this official term and definition, individuals ideas are not safe. The people that copy ideas are very efficient at it and could really ruin anyones chances of coming up with something unique and introducing it to the world. Because a person can declare something their intellectual property it helps protect them and their ideas. If someone take that idea, it is like stealing, they have taken your property.