The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War
brought about major changes to the world. With an increasing
number of environmental challenges coupled with rapid advancement
of information and communication technologies, the economy of the
entire world started to globalize at a stunning speed. A number
of scholars, thus, have attempted to provide explanations from
different perspective.
Friedman's flat world
While Stillman (2005) still focused on the hierarchy of the
institutions and suggested that both the environment and the
technology had "reshaped the complexities and challenges of the
government" and that the changes therewith are shifting public
administration concepts away from the old style hierarchical
systems toward a more open system, Friedman (2007) attributed
these all to his concept of a "flat world". Such a "flat world"
allows for the existence of a globalized world in which inputs
from different sources are clashing and crossing over to form a
new and highly complex nonhierarchical system in which modern day
administrators will have to reevaluate and hence tackle.
Friedman summarized these challenges into his ten "critical"
points (Friedman, 2007):
The global trend that capitalism is becoming the sole type of economic system for the whole world after World War II and the Cold War
The invention of the Internet browser, e.g. Netscape, Mosaic, Microsoft Internet Explorer® Firefox, Chrome, etc., allowing free access to information through Internet (p. 63)
The development of work-flow management software that enhances productivity by connecting previously isolated work systems (p. 81)
Web-based communication technologies, e.g. ICQ®, MSN®, Skype (free long-distance Internet telephony), and various IP-based telephony software that allow deeper collaboration ever between technical savvy communities which in turn drives innovation (p. 95)
The possibility to outsource conveniently throughvcommon digital platforms that enables cheaper production at all levels (p. 131)
The increase of competition, lowering of costs and creation of a more global economy due to off-shoring of businesses (p. 139)
Global supply chains that enable companies to locate better suppliers (via vertical e-business platforms) and compete at lower prices, hence driving economies and competition (p. 153)
In-sourcing or the development of horizontal markets which enables smaller businesses to compete in the global business arena (p. 169)
The possibility even for the individual to search and look up information freely and globally through convenient search engines, like Google, Yahoo etc., allows a much higher degree of "equal access to information" and hence drives creativity and innovation of the public (p. 184), and
The constantly evolving and innovative use of technologies, like YouTube®, Facebook™, MySpace®, enabling new types and generations of collaboration which in turn further globalize partnerships and development (p. 198)
The above factors, if converged, Friedman (2007) argued, would
help reshape, in a fundamental way, the entire world for the
coming century. They would superimpose to become new thrusts of
productivity, new sources of creativity, and new ways of sharing
that could eventually affect the system of governance. This is
also why the current generations of scholars are now advocating
new concepts of horizontal, nonhierarchical methods of governance.
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Photo credits for top title bar, from left to right: Iza H (Work),
Lukasz Gumowski (Blue balls),
Marcin Bania (Smiling and naked),
Lautaro Gonda (Milan station),
Jan Abt (Girl taking a picture),
Daniel Tang (Hot switch),
Barbara Henry (Moriah reading),
Ralf Herrmann (Checkmate II),
Marko Roeper (Led #4),
Ian Russell (Girl in downtown LA).
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Sketches, cartoons and other handdrawings courtesy of Alice-the-Artist.
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For those you who don't have time
to read all our news excerpts about the Asian island
disputes (links above), you may find the following video,
"The economic impact of a war between Japan and China",
very enlightening.
Oh, please do not get me wrong.
This new section is not about computers, electronics or
any engineering stuff, but rather I am currently constructing
a new corpus based on Spectrum, the monthly publication
from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers USA,
from July 2007 to date. Having been a member for
over 20 years since 1992, I am always fascinated by
some of the terms scientists use when they talk about or
envision their new inventions or methodologies. How many of
them eventually come into practice? Could there be
some insights we could possibly derive, from
the linguistics perspective?
IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER
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Click here to read my full disclaimer