Assignment 3

Justin Olsen

IST 1100

Module 3

Offshoring is when a company relocates a factory to a different country. This is usually done for the same reasons that outsourcing is done. Countries such as China have low wage workers, lower taxes, and other cost cutting measures. Offshoring is different from outsourcing in that outsourcing is just one task while offshoring is every task.  For example Dell    outsources their technical support while keeping the design process and manufacturing here in the United States. Electronic Arts on the other hand, moves their entire facility to China. Offshoring has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand a company has cheap labor, on the other hand, the customers are not happy with working conditions that are less than ideal.

A supply chain is every part of making a product from start to finish. As an example of a supply chain let's look at a happy meal toy. The process starts with a factory collecting and making the plastic required. This plastic is then shipped to a factory to be melted into whatever shape the creators want. The finished product is shipped to a McDonald's and sold to a customer. Supply chains make it so that one corporation does not need to manage every part of the process.  Wal-Mart uses supply chains to their advantage. They have various companies compete to be part of the Wal-Mart supply chain. Every company wants part in this because of the high profits so Wal_Mart gets the lowest prices from all of them. Wal-Mart also uses supply chains to feed demand. The book talks about how they observe what sells best where and ships more product to those locations.

Google could be one of the most influential companies in recent times. The internet made information accessible to some, web browsers made information easier to get but Google and other search engines made it so that we could find the information scattered across the web. Now that all information has become easily accessible companies have to work knowing that anyone can know anything about them and the companies can know anything about anyone. This is a double edged sword. By knowing everything about everyone companies can choose who to hire based on how people act online. On the other hand, this means that anyone can easily see if a company is doing anything that they should not be doing and easily find weaknesses in the company. It is amusing reading how Friedman talks about how everyone will have a device in their pocket connected to the internet considering the fact that the iPhone was released a year later and now everyone owns a smartphone of some sort. 

Assignment 2

Justin Olsen

IST 1100

Module 2

Work flow software is at its basic root, any software that connects people to do tasks quickly and efficiently. As an example I will be using a theorized version of a McDonald's with few to no employees at the franchise. The average visit to this McDonald's would start with the customer speaking into a microphone to place their order. That customer's voice would be transmitted by work flow software to a call center where they would use work flow software to enter the order into their computer. Meanwhile the customer would insert their money into a vending machine-like device that would use work flow software to store the earning for that day. From there the food would be cooked and given to the customer by machine or employee (depending on technology available) and the transaction would be complete.   

Open source software is software that has the code accessible to anyone. In most cases this software is developed by random people on the internet. Open source software is important for a variety of reasons. One of the main aspects of open source software is that it is free for anyone to download, change, and view. This free software is great for the consumer, but it is not so great for the companies that are trying to sell similar software. Some companies use open source software to their advantage by making free versions of a competitor's software. They hope to hurt other companies and build off of the free software for a price. One thing that Friedman failed to mention about open source software is that it is useful for computer programmers to become noticed. In the highly competitive world of computer programming big companies, such as Google, search through the open source forms for the best of the best. basically open source software has become a way for programmers to show their skills and build a good résumé.

Outsourcing is when a business or organization makes a contract with another company to have them perform a certain task. In most cases these tasks are outsourced to a third world country in order to reduce costs. However, this is not always the case. Some companies outsource certain tasks to other parts of the country. Outsourcing is important because it helps companies save time and money. When a company outsources a task they no longer have to deal with training and managing the employees that would be doing that task. Outsourcing also puts some of the risk on the outsourced company and reduces risk on your company. Unfortunately outsourcing also can have the effect of hurting a company's image by removing possible jobs that could be done nearby. Also in some cases outsourcing can make some tasks seem less personal for the customer.   

Assignment 1

Justin Olsen

IST 1100

Module 1

I did not know what to expect when I started this class. This first module however, seems to accurately portray how we will be talking about globalization and the internet's part in it. The first 77 pages of this book gives an interesting insight for the future. Globalization is vital for the utopia that several people envision for the future. Thomas Friedman writes about Globalization in his book The World is Flat. Friedman believes that there have been three eras of history that have drastically impacted world trade. He calls these eras Globalization 1.0, Globalization 2.0, and Globalization 3.0. Each era made the world into a smaller and more manageable place. Before Globalization 1.0 the world was large. We had no idea what size the world actually was until 1492 when Columbus attempted to forge a trade route from Europe to India by going west. He failed but his expedition can serve as an example of early globalization. The countries with ingenuity in Europe realized that international trade can bring a great deal of power. During this time governments used imperialism and religion to bring the world together. Globalization 2.0 made the world comparatively small. In the 1800's multinational companies replaced governments in driving globalization to new heights. At this time any decently sized company knew that they needed to go global to compete with the other companies. Technology is at least part of what drove this era with the invention of the telephone and steamships. The end Globalization 2.0 brought about Globalization 3.0 with the invention of the internet and the World Wide Web. Globalization 3.0 made the world downright tiny. Globalization 3.0 differs from 2.0 and 1.0 in that instead of governments or companies, everyone has the power. The ability for everyone to connect brings a great deal of opportunity and innovation to the world.

The fall of the Berlin Wall is incredibly important. It brought about an informational revolution. After the wall fell people were given access to information. Friedman sees the wall as a mental block as well as a physical one. As long as the Berlin Wall was up the world could not be seen as one market. He believes that  the fall of the Berlin wall brought about a changing of world view that ripples into the future. The fall of the wall made it possible to standardize ways of doing things that makes business far easier flattening the world.  In Europe alone this made the European Union and the Euro possible 

The story of Netscape is important because of how Netscape made the internet accessible. Before Netscape people had to have a decent amount of knowledge to do anything online. Anyone could connect to the internet but before Netscape no one could use it. Netscape could be the most world flattening thing so far. As the first web browser Netscape pioneered easy to access information without any rules or restrictions. Windows 95 was released soon afterward further increasing the number of people that could connect with each other.