Week 5: Is the world really flat?

Reaction to Friedman:

In a true journalistic fashion, Friedman has offered vivid and lively anecdotes about the people creating and riding the technology wave in an easy to read, conversational style. I am enjoying the book immensely. My favorite: Want Fries with Outsourcing? (page 40-41) about a McDonald’s franchise owner’s effort to link his businesses with one call center in Colorado to take drive-thru orders.
I thought it was amazing to note that the fast food orders traversed two states before the customer even reaches the pickup window. We are indeed talking time warp speed!
It also reveals that whether it is ‘insourcing’ or outsourcing,’ there will be a relentless push by corporate America to lower costs and increase efficiency. So either way, with better technology tools, the global job market will see a change in the way we work and how/who we employ.
My only beef with Friedman is the way he makes it sound (at least in the initial chapters, I haven’t read the entire book) that billions of people from India, China and former Soviet Russia are ALL converging as the third force in the level playing field created by the 10 flatteners. I don’t think this is accurate. At least not in India, (where I come from). The playing field may have been leveled, but not all players are equally equipped. Some players, mostly U.S and Europe, have bigger and better technology tools, infrastructure and huge wealth with powerful dollars and Euros. There is no way competition can be equal. What India and China are leveraging is their immense human/labor capital. That’s our only tool. Also, a very important point to note is that India’s English-speaking elite (only 10-15 percent of the population) can actually speak English proficient enough to be employable by the tech boom or afford the very expensive and very competitive education in the elite IITs and IIMs that Friedman mentions. So my point is that the technology has definitely helped jumpstart the economy and the Indian tech market grew 59 percent to $2.3 billion between 2002 and 2003 and Indian call centers currently employ about 160,000 professionals, according to a CNet report.
So the rural majority in India still struggles to make ends meet and there are no safety nets like Social Security or 401K. The divide between the rich and the poor has grown even wider. But I am hopeless optimist and I think some of these economic and technical benefits will filter down. I am hopeful socially-conscious citizens and NRIs will pressure the government to improve the quality of life for everyone. This article I read yesterday is a tiny example of what gives me hope.

Rural India takes a byte of e-smartness [Sunday, October 30, 2005)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1279533,curpg-1.cms

The report talks about the benefits of E-governance and how it is becoming popular in rural India. Villagers in certain Indian states can have access to financial statements of the panchayat (local government), and can learn agriculture management through CDs as well as download applications and get information on house taxes, trade licenses, old age and widow pension schemes and land record maintenance. All this was unthinkable 10 years ago.

Also, a point to note: Indian call centers have a 30-35 percent rate of attrition. This shows that most youngsters use that mindless, grunt job, as a stepping stone. Majority of them use the good money (by Indian standard) to either pay for a better education or learn a new skill during the day. This may take a toll on their health, but I think it is a short-term effect as they move on to more challenging and satisfying jobs.
I have also heard stories about how call center workers unionizing for even better wages and transparency between what their Indian bosses are charging the American/European clients and what they are paying the workers. Anyway, I am glad the call centers are not run like sweat shops and the workers are taken care of.
I recently saw a very interesting documentary about outsourcing and call centers in New Delhi at the recent Independent South Asian Film Festival in Seattle titled “Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night” (Sonali Gulati, New Delhi, India, 2005, DV, 22 min). It raised some pertinent questions about cultural and social costs of outsourcing, but ended on a very hopeful note. If you are interested in this topic, watch it. I have requested KCLS to get a copy.

Week 3: Synthesis of readings

Neil Postman etc

The broad overview I took away from all the readings was this:
Present day technology/Internet has come about due to the supervening social necessity of our times. Just as the telegraph and the telephone moved out of the ideation and prototype phase from the labs to the world at large due to the demands/needs (read supervening necessity) of early 19th and 20th century society.
This is the way human race has progressed from ideation to prototypes to performance and invented the wheel, the spinning jenny, steam engines, ships and planes, automatic weapons and the hydrogen bomb. Such invention are a collective process and take many years to come to fruition and are always being refined and improved upon by better ideas by a newer generation.
So the new media we are studying today is a phase in our ever-evolving existence. It is best studies in its historical context that Brian Winston offers in his book.

Such inventions/progress always has ‘unintended consequences.’ Neil Postman’s evocative examples are a case in point: From the Benedictine monks’ invention of the mechanical clock in the 13th century which led to the growth of capitalism to Gutenberg’s press that destroyed the monopoly of the church.
Similarly, the World Wide Web developed due to the needs of the military, is being used today for a many different functions (emails/games/news) and these can also be viewed as ‘unintended consequences.’
In essence I agree with some of Postman’s views, especially how the computer is wrongly being touted as the ‘technological messiah’ of our times. It is, as he says, a toy or a tool that helps us do many things efficiently. But it does not address the social ills/problems of our society. Therefore he calls all this technological development a “monumental waste of human energy and talent.”
Here is where I disagree with Postman. I think the only way we can create meaning in our lives and our society is by being cognizant and taking steps to rectify the negatives. It is up to us as a race, as people to do something about it. It is not the fault of computers/technology. For example, a modern day farmer has more time to spend with his family and improving his community life today due to the technological implements like hi-tech irrigation/harvesting technology. Now, whether he chooses to spend that extra time with family or community issues or fritter it away in drunken brawls at the local tavern is up to him. One can’t blame the computer for that! So our worst enemy is ourselves, not technology.
Also I don’t agree with Postman that life in the Middle Ages was better because people had a spiritual and social structure. He forgets to mention that it was also a time of feudal lords and papal authority and the common man was a mere serf and lived life in fear.
Id’ rather have the democracy of technology as pointed in “Around the World Wide Web in 80 ways.” It tries to track the diffusion curve and points out that more and more common people are using the Internet. Of course their motives define what kind of online activity they participate in.


Supplemental reading:
After reading Neil Postman, I immediately drew parallels with something I had read a while ago on a similar theme. The author, Knute Berger, talks about how to make sense of the media deluge and to listen to the media within us. He says, “while you may draw your data from the outside world, it is your internal processes that give it personal value.” The article was posted on the website of the non-profit, Context Institute, based in Langley, WA. One of its aim is creating a humane sustainable culture.

Surviving & Thriving In The Information Age: Ten suggestions for finding meaning in the chaos of the Information Age. By Knute Berger
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC23/Berger2.htm

Expanding horizons

Social aspects of new media technologies

Under the Uses and Gratification theory, it was interesting to note the two dominant styles of watching TV: a) ritualized viewing which is habitual and implies frequent consumption and b) instrumental viewing which is highly selective and purposeful.
It seems to me the plethora of choices on cable networks and the convenience of remote control has probably put more people in the instrumental viewer category. But I’m not sure if the frequent consumption has been cut back. I think more choices mean more TV.

Also noteworthy, was the research (page 467) on the impact of cable services on presumably entrenched news viewing habits. The study showed that most people who regularly watched local news identified with community and issues and paid scant attention to news on larger networks like CNN/NBC. But ironically, they always turned to these big networks during breaking new coverage. I guess, the logic might be that viewers instinctively know that a local station/newspaper has less resources/staff to cover bigger events and therefore the coverage may not be as comprehensive. I think the only way the small guys can keep the viewers engaged is by offering some local angle/report on the larger issue at hand.

Has the Internet killed the phone business?

I am very excited by the VOIP technology. I have used it on and off in the past and saved money on international calls to my family in India. However, I noticed one drawback. You need cable/DSL high speed internet connection for the data packets to be transferred smoothly: on both ends if you are going to use the internet to make free calls or at least on one end if you call a traditional phone line.
This is probably not an issue in the Western world with the easy accessibility of high-speed connection (though, I still think paying $37 per month is expensive, especially for students/low-income households). As far as India is concerned, I know only 2% of the population has access to high speed internet connection. On the other hand, at least 80% of the urban population has access to a phone. So I think telephony is not in any kind of immediate jeopardy in India. Also the cell phone boom is at its peak, as is the case in China and Japan.
But what I found helpful about the article is how the writer has used Skype as a case in point to illustrate the changes within the telecom industry. It is interesting to note how VOIP is riding the already existing Internet infrastructure wave to challenge traditional telephony, but at the same time allowing the flexibility to use telephone connections when required. Therefore, the AT&T/MCI hegemony may be in trouble but not the telephone as a communication device. Infact, the ease of using a handset is unquestionable, especially since it provides flexibility of movement. You can talk from the privacy of your bedroom or the sunny porch. This can only be possible if you have a wireless headset/laptop when using an Internet connection.

Driven by deadline!

Finally here! I needed to get this blog going for the UW Masters class before Sunday. Kathy's email was a wakeup call! :)
I had kept putting it off thinking it was another intimidating technology. But the steps were a piece of cake and I actually enjoyed the process, specially coming up with a blog name!
So finally, here I am, "A blogger." Makes me feel like a little star in cyberspace. :)