The World is Flat

Q1. What are the three stages of globalization?Answer 1: The globalization that we witness today is also brought in three stages, “Globalization 1.0” was when the boundaries between countries were eliminated, the world shrank from size large to size medium. In “Globalization 2.0” which lasted from 1800 to 2000, the driving forces of integration were multinational companies and the world shrank from size medium to size small. “Globalization 3.0” which is at present is about individuals collaborating and competing with each other globally and converting the world today into a flat world platform. Globalization 3.0 differs from “Globalization 1.0” and “Globalization 2.0” as the whole world is contributing to it and not only the western world.

Q2.What does the Friedmen mean by untouchables in the book “The World is Flat”?Answer: In this era of globalization 3.0 individuals are competing with each other. In order to protect one self each individual should try to become “untouchable”, that is, create a specialization or job opportunity that cannot be outsourced, digitized or automated. The author refers to such jobs as “fungible”. Normally, services whose quality drops significantly when they are delivered over a long distance as considered fungible. There are three categories of untouchable people. The author classifies them as follows: 1. People that are really special or specialized like singers, writers and top researchers.2. Localized and anchored people like barbers, garbage collectors and local dentists.3. “Old middle jobs”, such as assembly line workers and data entry staff. 

Q3 .What improvements are needed to bring countries back on the competitive track?There are four things that need to be focused on to bring countries on the right competitive track are improvement in: • Infrastructure• Educational system• Governance• Environment

Wikinomics: 

Q1. What are the four key organizational values one needs to profit from the collaborative opportunities? • Openness: Are you ready to open up infrastructures and intellectual property to the market as Amazon, eBay and Google have done to accelerate and extend the reach of innovation?• Peering: Can you cultivate a genuine team culture for innovation that extends beyond the borders of your organization with a platform where employees, partners, customers, consumers

and regulators work together as peers to produce value?• Sharing: Are you in a position to develop mutually beneficial exchanges with external partners, as IBM has done with Linux, recognizing the free operating system as an opportunity rather than a threat? By investing in Linux, IBM saves itself $1bn a year developing and maintaining a proprietary operating system• Acting Globally: Can your business think global and act global? We have a global economy, we live in a global village, and the web is a global innovation and delivery platform – so innovation teams not only need to think global, they must act global as well.

Q2. What are the 7 themes of the book?

Peer pioneers – people coming together to work on projects.Ideagoras – tapping ideas from outsideProsumers – the blurring of distinction between producers & consumersNew Alexandrians – initiatives to share knowledge for the benefit of the community.Platforms for participation – opening up platforms to allow the larger community to take part.The global plant floor – Involving people and entities across the world in the production processThe Wiki workplace – Breaking down of vertical hierarchies and increasing collaboration between people working in an organization. 

Art of Intrusion:

> Question 1: What is the most important phenomenon regarding security of computer systems? How can it be resolved?> Answer: Regarding the security of computer systems, Insider Hacking is the most alarming phenomenon. These issues can be tackled by strict accountability measures, account information should not be shared, screensavers should automatically lock computers, passwords should not have patterns, the physical access to network should be restricted, surveillance cameras to be installed, cubicles shouldn’t be left empty, disabling of all unused network jacks, monitor employees’ activities, new hardware devices cannot be installed without authorization, continuous walking inspections, check the processes regularly, log to be maintained and auditing of software inventories (authorized or licensed) and installation of third-party monitoring devices like Spycop, PestPatrol, Adware. The essential dimension that cannot be ignored is that companies should know that malicious software can attack systems at any time and they cannot have any room for vulnerabilities.

> Question 2: Define Penetration Tests: > Answer: A penetration test or pentest, is a method of evaluating computer and network security by simulating an attack on a computer system or network from external and internal threats. Professional hackers are hired by companies to carry out pen tests in order to discover weaknesses in the company security system.

Q1. Name the ten Flatteners and define any three:

1. 11/9/89 When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up2. 8/9/95 When Netscape Went Public Work Flow Software3. Let's Do Lunch: Have Your Application Talk to My Application4. Open sourcing – Self Organizing Collaborative Communities5. Outsourcing -Y2K6. Offshoring- Running with Gazelles, Eating with Lions7. Supply-Chaining-Eating Sushi in Arkansas8. Insourcing- What the Guys in Funny Brown Shorts Are Really Doing 9. In-forming - Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search10. The Steroids: Digital, Mobile, Personal and Virtual

Q2. What are the three classes of people for whom the world will remain unflat?

The first class of people are those who can be labelled as “too sick.” One of the major obstacles to technology is poor health standards and lack of awareness and education about diseases and illnesses. It is an established fact that every year, millions of people from various parts of the world like China, India and parts of Africa become inflicted with HIV, cancer and other fatal diseases. Many of these diseases are preventable but lack of resources make these fatal. Also, the scarcity of clean water causes immense survival issues to million in the world. 

The second class of people are regarded as too disempowered. These people typically live in the middle of the flat world and the unflat world. But they do not have the necessary tools and resources to utilize the tools of the flat world and thus they are disempowered and are mere spectators. This is quite interesting because it is not just a simple two-pronged picture where there is the flat world on one end and the unflat on the other, this abstract and realistic nature of the system shows that the middle populations, that are the disempowered, are the greatest in number. 

The third group is regarded as too frustrated by Friedman. The dictatorial and dogmatic forces in the Arab world are strong oppositions of the flattening of the world their primitive and conventional ways are a firm obstacle to the middle-east being part of the flattening race. Moreover, Friedman claims that Marxist and followers of the Lenin’s school of thought propagate the conventional and traditional way of life that could be called a misfit utopian desire in this modern age. This is a troublesome issue since it creates an ever-increasing divide between the west and east in terms of ideologies, technological advances and the overall directions of humanity.