Generation Next

The discussion is generally concerned with how the new generation, specifically between the ages of 18 to 24, in the United States became more open minded about different issues in life. Internet and technology in general lead to change the lifestyle of the new generation into a different one. They are more strongly attached to each other when it comes to friendships and relationships because of technology, which made it easy for everyone to be in touch with each other through cell phones, social networking sites, email, and instant messaging. It is the same when it comes to political ideas where we find out that they are aware of everything that goes around the world just by sharing what they know with each other or looking it up on the internet.

I would claim that the similarity between the new generation in the United States and the new generations in Iraq is bigger than the difference. The internet and technology has become a major part of the Iraqi youth, which seems to be promising to make everyone more aware of what is going on out there rather than being isolated. Text messaging, social networking, instant messaging and many other new technologies are becoming very common and basic among the young Iraqi people.

Some differences one would point out is that how each of them is concerned with politics. It is mentioned in the podcast that the American youth are politically active and more concerned with economic issues in the political atmosphere of their country. On the other hand, the young people in Iraq are more concerned with political issues that relate to solving the countries problems.

Another thing one would point out as a difference is the issues of race, discrimination, and the ways they think about the diversity of ethnicities. The civil war has become a part of history for them now. Problems relating to diversity of races and things like that still exist in the Iraqi generations like problems between Kurds and Arabs or Yazidies and so on.

The products and services that are targeted to this demographic are most likely the technological products and the new technology related services like iChat as it is mentioned in the Generation Next podcast. Furthermore, today’s suppliers in the world, regardless of the country, tend to target the young people. 

"Future Intelligence" Response

It is known that one of the dominant fields of knowledge in our age is the knowledge of highly developed technology. The movie was about how developed technology is in our age and how influential it can be on our lives. It showed how technology can replace lots of human powers and how it can replace human themselves in the near future. "In 25 years, robots will have superior cognitive ability to humans." I believe that this illustrates that technology is amazingly advanced and being more developed by MIT level experts. Scientists predict that one day there will be a society of robots similar to humans. In my opinion, this idea has more disadvantages than advantages. It might help to make life much easier for us, yet robots might also be more superior for the powers they have.

My impression about the Gina was that I was stunned by how amazingly developed its technology was. Having a flexible body, this car can create a revolution in the car industry. As an avid fan of German cars, especially BMW, I think that a whole new world can be brought to existence by producing such a car. I have seen the Gina before seeing the movie in class. One of my dreams in life is to see that fabric-skinned shape-shifting sports car which is located in the BMW museum in Munich, Germany.

Developing Countries and the Flat World

We have already seen that Friedman mentioned ten flatteners. In this section of the book, The World is Flat, he believes that the nations that have intentions to develop themselves must think about introspection while thinking about the flat world. It is not about going through all the steps, yet it is about knowing their position regarding the flatteners.  Other than committing to a competitive market, those countries must also develop infrastructure, right governance, and proper education.

Friedman provides Ireland as an example of a business-friendly country. It is one of the richest countries in the European Union because of addressing infrastructure, education, and governance.  It is not correct to say that cheap work is wanted everywhere. In fact, the capital seeks the most productive labor at the cheapest price.

Another thing that Friedman mentions in the text is that it is necessary to understand the culture in order to understand the economic performance of a country. He argues that the open cultures have the best chance to succeed because of their ability and willing to adapt to global practices. He also mentions the importance of giving woman the opportunity to express themselves because keeping them away from the workforce eliminate half of the talent pool. Friedman calls the missing element “the intangible things.” Friedman boils the intangibles down to two basic elements: a willing society and leaders with vision. His example for this case is the success of China, unlike Mexico.

Digital Story Telling Podcast

The advantages are the female speaker claims that the ability to tell a story through a podcast makes an "exponential" difference e that through a podcast you can reach a much wider audience.

One important thing to know is that digital tools improve digital literacy, as users have to know how to use the verbal and visual aids to put their stories together. This obviously helps users improve their communications skills, and allows them to become more comfortable with a whole range of digital tools, which are becoming more important through time. Furthermore, users learn how to use the web for their stories, editing software, as well as greatly improving their task and project management skills. Digital storytelling allows kids to explore and explain their individual stories in their own way, using many different skills to put a great story together.

The most obvious disadvantages associated with digital storytelling seem to be that it takes a lot of time to prepare. Obviously it will take up a lot of time for both parties involved (Student and teacher), but there are ways to counter this as well, by getting the students to better use their time outside of class in getting everything ready.

To be honest, I only understood digital storytelling after listening to the podcast. I guess it is a chance for me to improve my skills regarding basic editing on moviemaking software, and that by the end of this project, I will be more comfortable using the software. 

The Final Four Flatteners and "The Triple Convergence."

Supply Chaining: it is the 7th Flattener that Friedman talked about in his book. His idea about this flattener is increasing the connections between suppliers, retailers, and customers. Wal Mart is a good example to use for this flattener. He compares this flattener, the modern retail supply chain, to a river. Wal Mart is highlighted for its use of technology to streamline its sales, distribution, and shipping management. Supply Chaining is an example of the flattening of the world because it levels the ground and boundaries between customers and manufacturers regardless of where they are in the world.

Insourcing: it is the 8^th flattener and here Friedman uses UPS as an example. He shows how the company's employees perform services for other companies, such as UPS servicing and repairing Toshiba computers and products at their own UPS hub, by UPS employees.

In-forming: it is the 9^th flattener. Friedman describes Google, as well as other search engines, as prime examples. In-forming refers to just how easy it is for people, regardless of place, to get information about different things.

'The Steroids': it is the 10^th and last Flattener that Friedman mentioned. It is a combination of small factors that help to increase the affects of outsourcing, offshoring, uploading, supply-chaining, insourcing, and in-forming. Examples used for this flattener include Mobile phones, iPods, and instant messaging.

In 2000, a new flatter came to stage. It all started from ten flatters that were converging with one another. New businesses led to the creation of new expertise. Individuals started to learn and gain new habits.

1. Convergence one: the creation of ten flattener’s convergence (platform), which allows people around the globe including businessmen, students, and workers to collaborate with each other to get their work done.           

2. Convergence two: it is the “Horizontilization”, which is the convergence of allowing different fields, instead of people, to collaborate with each other. It makes it possible for the IT people, technology users, students, and many other fields to be able to work together for certain goals. It is different than the first convergence because it is a horizontal collaboration, which requires a different set of skills.

3. Convergence three: it is a demographic convergence. In our age, India, China, Russia, the Eastern European states, and Latin America were the doors for people to participate in the global concern by opening their economic and political systems. This collaboration leads to some developments that have never seen before. The world witnessed 1.5 billion new participants.

Presentation critique

As a group, I believe that our presentation was good enough to be one of the best ones in the class. However, there were still some things that we have to work on for the next time. Personally, I was a little bit nervous because I was not prepared. I hesitated to give out information because of the time limit.

Ranj exceeded the time a little bit. It took him more than four minutes to do his part. Rahi could have shown some graphs to show the economic information related to YouTube.

We did not provide any information on how to create a YouTube account. We also did not mention the age restrictions. Most importantly, we did not mention the web address of YouTube, which is www.youtube.com

To make our presentation better, I believe that we need some more rehearsal, body language and organization.

The next three flatteners

Thomas Friedman mentioned three other flatteners in this section of his book. The flatteners are:

Uploading: Friedman states that it is the process in which individuals or communities have the ability to put information on the web. The easy access to the internet gives us the opportunity to create different great things. The example that he uses to show how great this process can be is Wikipedia. According to Friedman, this flattener has the potential to be the most "disruptive" of all.

Outsourcing: this was a useful tool that allowed companies to split their services and departments into different components, allowing for cost-efficient work to be dealt with in cheaper prices. Friedman’s example on this part is India. He explains how US companies outsource jobs to Indians trained at the Technology Institutes. He shows that this process does not get in the way of American companies, but is a great way of saving money, as well as creating jobs in developing markets.

Offshoring: it is the process of moving a company’s factory abroad. The reasons behind that might be different reasons such as cheaper labor, better tax rates or better trade barriers. This is what the manufacturers think about outsourcing and their perspective about it.