The World is Flat - Module 5

As Friedman so fluently explains how the global playing field has been made “flat”, he also so astutely explains coming together of technologies and minds in order to bring even more change. 

In his theory so aptly titled the “Triple Convergence” Friedman explains that step one is the actual merging of players, or technologies, that are all on the same playing field. As he describes a product by Konica Minolta called the “Bizhub” that can scan, fax, e-mail, print and copy, we can visualize the concept. 

            The second step of “Triple Convergence” is the utilization of new technologies to allow us to do regular business in a new way. Just as his airline tickets from Southwest were able to be printed out at home and scanned at the terminal, it is a new way of applying this technology to traditional business.

            The third step, and probably one of the most perplexing for humans is the introduction of new players on this “flat” playing field that develop more concepts and capabilities of doing business. Field says, “I believe [it] is the most important force shaping global economics and politics in the early twenty-first century.”

            And considering the heart of the third step of his “Triple Convergence” theory, are the new members joining our technological playing field. As more Chinese, Indian and Soviet nationals are quickly entering the field and trying to make their own mark in what we would call our world, we must require that we attempt to be conscientious players. We must do our best to ensure our own success while ensuring the fair treatment and proper growth of economics and business in this new period.

            Considering the situation of the government of the state of Indiana and the contract won by the company in India to find a way to more effectively be able to process unemployment compensation to workers, we must ask ourselves to fairly inspect the situation and to determine whether this company in India was exploited in any way. From what can be determined, the Indian company did not feel that they were exploited in any way, in fact they still do business with America. The state of Indiana did not feel that they were exploited by the Indian company as they commented on how nice the company was to do business with.  Could it have been then, a matter of mutual exploitation? This term would seem foreign and unobjective, but isn’t this what most business transactions are based on? I do business with you for what you can offer me and for what I can gain from you. You do business with me from what you can give to me in exchange for what you can get from me. Friedman called it “horizontalization in globalization”. 

            One main commodity that must be guarded and protected, however, is the commodity of intellectual property. Simply, intellectual property should belong to whoever develops it. But lines get blurred in our technological day when the question of ownership must be answered. In a case against Yahoo, the family of Lance Corporal Justin M. Ellsworth attempted to gain intellectual property upon his death. They wished access to his electronic files that Yahoo held. We may want to respond emotionally and side with the family, but consider the precedence it would set for others who might be found incompetent or who forfeit their rights and someone decides that they would like to have access to their knowledge. It’s almost the stuff that comic book villains and hero’s are made up of, but it must be considered, and will soon be part of our normal vocabulary just as other concepts have been introduced out of necessity and are easily accepted today.