The Triple Convergence

The First Convergence contains all the factors (Flatteners) that are discussed in Chapter II. They produce a platform that is global, web-enabled platform to enable communication among people who want to do scientific things. In addition, this platform operates regardless of where people are, who they are, when they live, and how they think. The Second Convergence occurs in a time when business come together with technology. Surprisingly, it took a lot of time for companies to take advantage of Convergence I, but a historian said that we should not be surprised. When electrification began in the late 1800s, the factories that existed were built around steam technology – they were huge and designed to support massive steam engines. Saving money from electrification didn't happen overnight. To really save money, industrialists had to scrap those huge factories and replace them with smaller and cheaper factories that were filled with the lighter and cheaper electric motors. The Third Convergence is demographic. In 1900's, many countries opend their economic and political system for their people to participate in creating the platform of business. As it was expected, people became engaged in that platform. With offering such an opportunity, people in the future will be able to create many inventions that will be useful for the whole world

To see the relevance to Iraq, if the government does what Friedman suggests by opening the system to citizens, and if people share their ideas with the government instead of criticizing them all the time, Iraq will have such a great step forward, just like what China and India did last year. Unfortunately, to make this dream come true, many people have to be educated first, which is going to take a lot of time, so I'm skeptical about seeing that people collaborate with the government. I believe this will not happen this generation, nor will it happen the next generation. 

The Great Sorting Out

By Sorting Out, Friedman says that chaos will happen because of the Triple Convergences. He says our society will collapse after it. So, he gives an example of an Indian company that bought a contract to upgrade the amount of the unemployment because it offered 8.1 billion dollars less that its competitors. there are many questions arise here, the most important of which is "who will own intellectual property?"

Flatteners 8, 9, 10

Flattener 8 - Insourcing

Insourcing means that a company's work gets done by another company. UPS is what Friedman used to describe insourcing. it repairs Toshiba Computers in need, and it is considered as a mean of communication among companies

Flattener 9 - In-forming

The way we use seek information on the internet. Friedman says we have Google and Yahoo as good websites to search for what we need and we can find them easily on the internet via these great websites. Also, what's amazing about them is that they show the result in no more than 1 second, which is really fast and good for the speed.

Flattener 10 - the Steroids

The new communicating devices like Wi-Fi, mobile phones and iPhones allow us to communicate with each other anytime. We have started to use them hugely because we want to save time and we can start typing our blogs by our cellphones.

Steroids in Iraq

Of course, "Steroids" have affected Suli as they have affected the rest of world. By the help of these new means of technology, people in Suli are able to communicate with those who are abroad and  who left because of Saddam and haven't returned yet. We often see people holding cellphones and having internet access around Suit, which indicates the huge development Suli is going through. 

Flatteners 4, 5, and 6

Flattener 4:
in this flattener, Friedman mainly talks about the uploading option, which is the opposite of downloading. how this works is simple; we can just transfer or copy a file from the device we have to the network. He also considered blogs as flatteners because of their ability to make people communicate easily and express their ideas. 

Flattener 5:

Outsourcing is the other flattener about which Friedman talks. It basically means taking everyday's job and paying for another company in another country to do it instead. Some companies have showed up offering this kind of services, such as accounting. Let's take another example of this; teaching through the Internet have been widely popular because it is easier, faster, and someone can do it while s/he is home. 

Flattener 6:

"Outshoring" is what a company devotes another company to do. They do that for many reasons, on of which is the fact of finding cheaper labor in the other country. For instance, what all people know is that China is the cheapest manufacturer nowadays. That is why we see some other countries have started to ask for less amount of money for labor work to compete with China. The US, as Friedman thinks, will face a problem related to the high paid doctors and lawyers. So, the US will not have the opportunity to compete with China. The US is falling behind of the education system, and less than China and other Asian countries. This will become an issue as long as the US don't solve it as soon as possible.

Is the World Really Flat?

According to the amazing book, "The World is Flat," Friedman hypothesize that the world is flat, so he travels all around the world with a of Discovery Time Channel crew to approve his idea. He travels to Bangalore, India and gets amazed by the american advertisements there and also the huge number of people who are able to speak in English. Then, he visits Infosys Technologies LTD. and gets surprised by how nice and good the system they have, which allows people to communicate with each other and make video calls. Later, Friedman mentions information about how globalization has evolved from the time of Columbus till now by the internet.  Friedman goes to Japan, China, and returns to the USA and classifies the factors that have affected the business world.
Afterwards, he lists ten important events that flattened the world as he thinks.

Flattener #1: When The Walls Came Down and The Windows Came Up: by the collapse of Berlin's walls, Friedman thinks this is a major event and have huge effects on the world. This event the Cold War ended, helped establish the free-market capitalism, made people think the world is a single market, helped raising the equality, and sharing knowledge among people.

Flattener #2: When Netscape Went Public: The Internet and Netscape became public. this event helped people to communicate with each other easily and share anything they want anytime.

Flattener #3: Work Flow Software: this event started when people used software for their jobs. Friedman mentions the company that makes cartoon series for Disney. Using Computers to record, write, and animate the show was something amazing for him. The use of the VPN, which stands for "Virtual Private Network" helps them to stay in touch with each other. This revolutionary invention helped people to do their work easier and make them less time.

Technology

Technology over Time

             Ray Kurweil mentioned a lot of things about technology and how it has affected our lives. Technology has been developed during the last century and there are a lot of things that have affected it. There are a many things have been developed, such as biology, medicine, and cell phone.  For example, solar cells can give us a lot of energy and it can last till 2030, and they are not harmful for the environment. With the help of technology, we can help Earth to be a better place to live. Another example for the great development is cell phones. At the beginning, people did not have the willing to buy cell phones because they were not adapted to using cell phones, but people now know everything about a cell phone even before its release date. Cell phones have become important devices in people's lives because they are means for fast communication.

Furthermore, scientists used technology to know the structure of the DNA, which helped humans to know a lot of new things regarding evolution.  Finally and most importantly, the great development of the computers has had a lot of benefits for the human kind. The computers have gone from very big products to small products that we can keep in our pockets. Computers and tablets are the top first wanted products nowadays because people have started to rely on them very much. If computers were not developed, they would not have been the most important products to be found in almost each organization. To sum up, technology will never be the same because information can be obtained over time.