Jeremy Daugherty ninthstar@hotmail.com

EDT 646 Spring 2006

Assignment II Timelines

1-27-06

 

 

Flattener #1

There are several instances where I am experience the flatteners the same time as Friedman implies they take place. Of these, the Fall of the Berlin Wall is probably the easiest to understand. I do not know who in America didnÕt know about the fall of the Berlin wall within a week of it happening. With regard to experiencing a Windows 3.0 operating system or later, I didnÕt do that until late 1995 after my entrance into college. Though, I did have an Apple IIe computer at home but the difference from text based input to GUI was an astounding move.

 

Flattener #2

Honestly, I didnÕt even know about the Netscape IPO in August of 1995, I did begin my web browsing career in the spring of 1996. At the time I was logging onto AOL and using it to browse the internet. In fact, it was shortly there after that I would use AOLÕs connectivity and then start another browser because I never really liked the AOL interface. I was lucky being at college at the time, if not I would have not had access till much later. For instance, my parents didnÕt have internet access until early 2000, now thatÕs crazy!!!

 

Flattener #3

Freidman really doesnÕt give a set date about common standards except XML which worked one around 1996 and approved by W3C on 2/10/97. I would argue that common software communication standards started with TCP/IP. In addition, he refers to MS Word as a common software standard, but Word is a proprietary standard. In his example of Ņworkflow softwareÓ he is actually referring to the standard Word interface, no matter the language, not a standard software protocol.

 

With this in mind, I believe that my experience with common standards started around the same time I began using the internet. I was emailing someone across the country using Juno email. It was great, and though I didnÕt think about it at the time, I would have never been able to communicate with this person if there were not common standards developed to allow our email applications communicate with each other.

 

Flattener #4

The book uses Apache, which was developed in 1995 as one of the first open sources software codes. I probably surfed many websites which were being served off apache servers, but it wasnÕt until late 2002 that I began to appreciate open source applications. I now use several open source applications on a daily basis. These include my web browser, email client, and calendar application.

 

Flattener #5

I look back and wonder that if I have every experienced outsourcing. I know I have felt the effects of calling unknowledgeable workers on the phone, but this could happen even if I was talking to an American on the phone. The closest thing I can think of was in the summer of 2000. I was Ņlet goÓ by a food service company because they hired three Mexican laborers for the same $7/hr wage I was earning as 1 person. This was quite the shock to me, but is it really outsourcing?

 

Flattener #6

The book uses the entry of China into the WTO in late 2001 as the start of off-shoring. I have never directly experienced my job being off-shored. I was laid off from a position at the end of 2002 around the time of the general downturn of the economy in Michigan, but this layoff was cause by fiscal irresponsibility by my employer. If lack of new jobs in west Michigan is at least partially the result of off-shored labor, than off-shoring did have a great effect on me finding a new job to replace the one I had lost.

 

Flattener #7

I choose to begin supply-chaining as a flattener around 1987. As it states in FreidmanÕs book this was then that Wal-Mart instituted its satellite tracking system. For me, the only way supply-chaining has affected my life is via my shopping at Wal-Mart in the early Ō90s.

 

Flattener #8

In-sourcing; I have never experienced in-sourcing. In anticipation, I believe I will experience some form of in-sourcing soon after I re-enter the workforce. Many of my friends in Grand Rapids use in-sourcing methods. Though I donÕt think they have taken it as far as the UPS models given in the text.

 

Flattener #9

During my college years I was an avid user of search technology. I preferred a now defunct search engine call the Metacrawler, which I believe was purchased by Go networks and then, well, who knows. Again, due to my attendance at a college, I was able to access new technologies before I would have been if I was still in high school or if I had already graduated.

 

Flattener #10

Steroids, well honestly my first encounter with what is more commonly know as Ņthe juiceÓ was around late 2001. I had recently joined GoldÕs Gym and was askedÉ.. Ha, Ha, Ha! No really, I love mobile phones! I had begun investigation into mobile technology in the late 1990s, but did not actually buy my first mobile, a Nextel, until 2001. Then in 2002 I became a manager for Sprint PCS and truly enjoyed the benefits of having access to insider information. Since 2002 I have always had data abilities on my phone. I have watched the web adapt itself to the mobile generation and have even spent a great deal of time developing website concepts for mobile users.