Saturday, January 27, 2007

com 125, 2nd assignment:Technology reshapes the global economic map in the 21st century

Today’s global economy is genuinely borderless. Information, capital, and innovation flow all over the world at top speed, enabled by technology and fueled by consumers’ desires for access to the best and least expensive products. (Ohmae, 1995). Yes it is true that we are now live in a borderless world, a world where the national is no longer relevant or meaningful economic units and in which consumer tastes and cultures are homogenized and satisfied through the provision of standards global products created by global corporations with no allegiance to place or community. Thus, the ‘global’ is claimed to be the natural order of affairs in today’s technologically driven world in which time-space has been compressed. The ‘end of geography’ has arrived and everywhere is becoming the same. (Peter Dickens, 2003). Technology is one of the most important processes underlying the globalization of economic activity.

Evolution of Internet
The internet: the “skeleton of cyberspace”




These developments in the communication media have been joined by an even more revolutionary technology that provides the potential for interactive communications on a global basis. “the skeleton” of this emerging cyberspace is the Internet, whose origins go back to the early 1970s and are to be found within The US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (APRA).By the late 1970s, the personal computer revolution, built on the technical foundations created by the ARPA researchers a decade previously, had created a new industry and a new subculture. By the late of 1980s, Internet, the successor to ARPANET, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, already includes tens of thousands of researchers and scholars in private industries and universities connected to the Net through their institution’s computer centers (Rhringold 1993).

ARPANET TO INTERNET


ARPAnet stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. In the 1965, the first network WAN created Berkeley and MIT via telephone line. It is all about to plugging PCs into telephone. All of the off-the shelf devices that you could plug to make that work, the “enabling technologies “for personal telecommunications, were available and the price was dropping. With the powerful computers available to citizens today and affordable modems, you don’t need an expensive, high-speed conduit like Internet uses. (Rhringold, 1993) . Firstly , the ARPANET network was constructed by linking four nodes. University of California at Los Angeles, SRI(in Standford), University of California at Santa Barbra, University of Utha. Only in 1970, ARPA net becomes a major player. 23 computers are connected to the ARPANET in all over the states. In 1972, There were Public demonstraion of ARPAnet between4 40 PCs in Wahington DC and since from that time, each computer center is a community of individuals who share computer resources, and when it joins the high speed backbone of internet, each community is virtually connected to every other, via private email, public real time chat and worldwide public conversations such as Usenet.Net culture tool on a global , youthful, often heavily American flavor as so many colleges wroldwide ( Norway , England and etc) came online, starting in the United States. Usenet, is an open system focusing on email communication and devoted to ‘newsgropus’ is opened and still thriving today . In 1979 , instead of email ,internet plays a very impotant role in this global networking Unfortunately , The APRANet comes to a complete halt in October 1980 beacause of an accidentally –propagated status message virus. However, after a few months, Bitnet was develpoed City University New York to link university seientists using IBM computers , regardless of discipline. In 1982, european version of the Unix network which is an operating system is a master control program that handles interactions betwwn human user and computer programs was established. (Rhringold, 1993).Actually , it was linking networks in the UK,Scandinavia and the Netherlands, followed in 1984 by a European version of Bitnet , know as EARN ( European Academic and Research Network)

FIRST TIME THE WORD INTERNET IS USED


In 1982 , the most important and useful word in today technology so called "INTERNET" is born and first time ever used. It uses a connected set of network using the TCP/IP standard.
after that it divided into MILNET and ARPANET.MILNET and the advanced research componet, DOS .IN 1985, Quantum' first online, "Q link" launced on Commodore Business Machine.In 1988, the concept called the world wide web, WWW was designed by scientists at CERN(Geneva). WWW is a network of sites that can be searched and retrived by a special protocol known as Hypertext Transer protocol (HTTP) . The internet users become more and more and in the 1990s , it has 92 million internet users only in US. and there was tremendously online developments like Archie -ftp in 1989, Internet relay Chat(IRC) was developed in 1989.
At the same year, the first email relay beings between a commercial online service.In 1990,the first Internet search-engine for finding and retrieving computer files is started and the word ARPA net ceases to exist ad the network is now officially referreed to as INTERNET.




To wrap this , Technology indeed reshape the global economic map in the 21st century. A handful of companies discovered success developing business models that would not exist if not for the World Wide Web. These include Google's search engine and its system of "relevent advertising", Apple Computer's iTunes web music store and Expedia's web-based travel service. Other companies, while offering traditional services, managed to find a solid Web-based niche and survive the bust; these include Amazon.com (books and media) and eBay (auctions) which we dont need to go shop around the wrold . This era also brought social networking websites to light, that along with iTunes, are today an extensive part of youth culture, such as MySpace, Xanga, Friendster, Facebook, and youtube.(wekipedia,2006). What Thomas Friedman stated " the world is flat ' is ture . I believe that the advent of internet , wireless technology , search engine and other innovations , the world is becoming more flattened. the location does not really mattter, We all are in same level in the sense that we can do business anywhere of hte world easily . However, the notion that' the world is flat' , may be ture for some cases like by means of technology but we cannot declare that it is totally flat. for example , even for technology , there has been lots of developing countries or Third world countries that cannot access the ineternet. With that come power disparity, and in these developing countires , usually only the rich ones have access to the technology . ( Except , for some places like Bangalore,and Dalian , where the infrastructure are there) . Indeed , there are still bumps in this world like language, culture , political barriers to entry other country . So We can never say that the world is flat but indeed , technology does really reshape the world economic map in 21st century .It really eliminate the time and space of the world when doing business.

REFERENCES

History of World Wide Web (5 September, 2006). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 25, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_World_Wide_Web&oldid=73974490

Rheingold,H.(1993) Visionaries and Convergences:The Accidental History of the Net.The Virtual Community. New York:Perseus Books.Retrived
http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/3.html

Dicken,Peter(2003)Global Shift, 4th Edition , chapter 4 ,Technology, the Engine of Change

History of the Internet (2006, Aug 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Internet&oldid=70771572

Friday, January 26, 2007


Thursday, January 18, 2007

life is a roller coaster

This is my first ever blog. Have been scratching my head over what should I write about… If it wasn’t my lecturer who forced me to write this blog, I would not even think about it. You must be wondering, what am I talking about? Or, ahh…it is kinda cliché. But, here it is …

I assume that you have rode the roller coaster before. How did you feel? The adrenaline? The up and down? We are so excited and always wanting to get on-board, but simultaneously we are scared. Sooo scared in fact. Once we get on the ride, we cannot escape from it anymore. We have to ride till finish, regardless of whether you feel like puking or not feeling well. The same scenario applies to our life. We will always have this up and down, there are time when we are very excited and there are times when we are really worried or scared. However, we should never stop trying. Like the roller coaster ride, we always want to get on another ride.

I was born on the 12th of April 1986 in Yangon, capital city of Myanmar. Unlike what the media here portrays about my country, I can assure you that I have a simple and yet carefree life. Just like typical Singaporean teens, most of my time are spent in school studying or having extracurricular activities, I even represented my school on swimming competition.

My life is always filled with ups and down. I am very proud to say that I was the class chairwoman for 3 consecutive years, part the Student Association for 2 years, and also the chief editor for my school magazine. Looking at this CV, you guys might think that I am such a high-flyer. However, no…In terms of study, I am not that good. Probably, the school environment is too competitive. Me and my friends have almost committed suicide twice during my high school. It is too much of work and work and not enough play. Nevertheless, these experiences certainly built me up tougher. I know how to handle stress and heavy workload better.

My arrival to Singapore can be said to be purely coincidental. I have never planned to come Singapore. My plan was to go to the States. However, my visa was twice rejected by the embassy. It is partly due to the difficult relationship between Myanmar and USA.
I was really lost at that time, I am not too sure what to do. Finally, I came to Singapore. Not for study actually, but for LASIK operation. After the LASIK, people were telling me, “If cannot get USA visa, study in Singapore lah… Here also world class.” Partly due to that, I ended up in the SIM-UB program which I applied immediately.

To wrap this up, I went from the high of being part of the Student Association and class president to the low of wanting to commit suicide in my high school. Since it is my last semester, I am glad that I have finished my degree study in SIM-UB after all those depressions , sadness , deadlines. Pop up quizs and exams , however, finally realizing that it is just a new start in my life. I have to pass through roller coasters journey all the time but realizing that the thing that matter the most is learn to cope with this life. I believe that life is full of ups and downs but success come to only those people who persevere. Enjoy every single moments of life with no regrets.