A distinction is made between how the educational system is viewed by the technocrats and the configurationists. Technocrats see in the educational system “only the reflection of a state of the economic system". Technocratic ideology tends to see the educational system in a deterministic way, where a progressive march toward better and better delivery of its economic aims is only a matter of measuring output. Configurationists on the other hand see in the educational system “the direct expression of the value system of ‘society as a whole". They analyze the educational system in terms of the cultural configuration within which it is embedded.
Then the ideological function of the educational system is introduced. The author concludes by saying "Because the traditional system of education manages to present the illusion that its action of inculcation is entirely responsible for producing the cultivated habitus, or, by an apparent contradiction, that it owes its differential efficacy exclusively to the innate abilities of those who undergo it, and that it is therefore independent of class determinations – whereas it tends towards the limit of merely confirming and strengthening a class habitus which, constituted outside the School, is the basis of all scholastic acquirements – it contributes irreplaceably towards perpetuating the structure of class relations and, simultaneously, legitimating it, by concealing the fact that the scholastic hierarchies it produces reproduce social hierarchies."
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Myth: Meaning and form
The culture plays an important role in the formulation of myths. It was interesting to read the treatment of Einstein's brain. Well, the difference in culture would not make a big difference in relating to Einstein - he belongs to all the different cultures in a way. It's interesting to see that he is being compared to robot and he doesn't seem like human with all the incredible abilities he had.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Useful ideas and Questions
Three Questions:
Are the transformations which are taking place in the world today because of economy?
Is there still a bottom billion and is anything being done to improve their conditions? Is the condition of bottom billion the same everywhere regardless of which country they belong to?
In The Public and its Problems, John Dewey describes the necessary development of symbol systems that allow a community to connect through elevated communication. Do Film and photography introduce a whole new symbol system?
It is still prohibitively expensive to truly create knowledge for an individual. Knowledge assets are still copyrightable and patentable, their customization is only at the level of presentation. For example, I customize my google homepage to get news from CNN mixed in with analysis of the events from my favorite blogger and videos from youtube all filtered to my interests. That homepage is unique to me, yes, but it is composed of knowledge assets that are owned by different sources. Copyright and patent laws still apply. How and to what extent the existing laws need to be modifed for the third wave?
Three Useful Ideas:
1) According to John Dewey there are two important factors which can help the public to get rid of the eclipse and to attain a Great Community. One factor is that each individual should have the basic intelligence to engage in political affairs and the second factor is the idea of the individual who knows all situations which require political action.
2) In The Public and its Problems, John Dewey describes the neccesary development of symbol systems that allow a community to be connected through elevated communication.
3) Benjamin Franklin states that there are two important factors which can help the public to get rid of the eclipse and to attain a Great Community. One factor is that each individual should have the basic intelligence to engage in political affairs and the second factor is the idea of the individual who knows all situations which require political action. Do these factors apply to the world situation today?
Are the transformations which are taking place in the world today because of economy?
Is there still a bottom billion and is anything being done to improve their conditions? Is the condition of bottom billion the same everywhere regardless of which country they belong to?
In The Public and its Problems, John Dewey describes the necessary development of symbol systems that allow a community to connect through elevated communication. Do Film and photography introduce a whole new symbol system?
It is still prohibitively expensive to truly create knowledge for an individual. Knowledge assets are still copyrightable and patentable, their customization is only at the level of presentation. For example, I customize my google homepage to get news from CNN mixed in with analysis of the events from my favorite blogger and videos from youtube all filtered to my interests. That homepage is unique to me, yes, but it is composed of knowledge assets that are owned by different sources. Copyright and patent laws still apply. How and to what extent the existing laws need to be modifed for the third wave?
Three Useful Ideas:
1) According to John Dewey there are two important factors which can help the public to get rid of the eclipse and to attain a Great Community. One factor is that each individual should have the basic intelligence to engage in political affairs and the second factor is the idea of the individual who knows all situations which require political action.
2) In The Public and its Problems, John Dewey describes the neccesary development of symbol systems that allow a community to be connected through elevated communication.
3) Benjamin Franklin states that there are two important factors which can help the public to get rid of the eclipse and to attain a Great Community. One factor is that each individual should have the basic intelligence to engage in political affairs and the second factor is the idea of the individual who knows all situations which require political action. Do these factors apply to the world situation today?
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The Elite and Moral Values
One of things which is described is that the elite is not moral and educated anymore. There may be corrupt men in good and sound institutions but now the institutions are corrupting as many of the men who live and work in them are corrupted. When it is said that the public is morally confused it means that there is a generalized lack of commitment. The institutions are not found on the ancient faith which nourished them. There is no moral order of belief and hence all men are open to manipulation and distraction of the world of the celebrities. Money and the things it can buy is considered to be the criterion of success and since money is the commanding value the influence of other values has declined so men become morally ruthless in the pursuit of easy money.
The heads of the big hierarchies are the wielders of the patronage of success. The elite justifies himself by superior merit and hard work but he is founded on other grounds so he has to persuade others and himself that he is the opposite of what he actually is. The higher cirlces in America claim that they are self made but what does self made mean. In the world of corporate hierarchies men are selected by those above them and they use their own criterion. There is n such thing as a self made man altough there are self used men.
Sicne wealth is considered as success so wealth and knowledge are interrelated. Status follows big money and status follows power. The men in the higher circles are not representative men, as their high position is not the result of moral virtue. They are however selected and formed by the means of power, they are not selected and formed by the civil service or by nationally responsible parties. They are "Commanders of power unequaled in human history".
The heads of the big hierarchies are the wielders of the patronage of success. The elite justifies himself by superior merit and hard work but he is founded on other grounds so he has to persuade others and himself that he is the opposite of what he actually is. The higher cirlces in America claim that they are self made but what does self made mean. In the world of corporate hierarchies men are selected by those above them and they use their own criterion. There is n such thing as a self made man altough there are self used men.
Sicne wealth is considered as success so wealth and knowledge are interrelated. Status follows big money and status follows power. The men in the higher circles are not representative men, as their high position is not the result of moral virtue. They are however selected and formed by the means of power, they are not selected and formed by the civil service or by nationally responsible parties. They are "Commanders of power unequaled in human history".
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
The Great Transformation
The Great Transformation
The Transformation in the modern state happened because of the changes in market economy. There were tensions in the classes of the society at the time of the expansion of the market.
While the economy was becoming liberal the rights of the citizens also had to be protected. The economic liberals contended that no regulations are needed for the protection of the citizens as they believed that the market would have resolved it’s difficulties. Polanyi thinks that the idea of self regulating market is utopian and will not last.
He believes that changes in society did not happen just because of class as liberal and Marxist explained it. He thinks that the situation of the work poor in England is the same as Kaffir in South Africa and the Indian masses. Are these people the bottom billion whose condition is the same everywhere? Is their condition parallel even now or are the bottom billion in economically sound countries much better than those in poor countries? Is there any parallel between the situation of the poor in England, Kaffir in South Africa and the Indian masses? It depends on how their situations is viewed if compared with the others in their own country then their situation would seem to parallel each other but their situation cannot be seen as parallel to each other.
The Transformation in the modern state happened because of the changes in market economy. There were tensions in the classes of the society at the time of the expansion of the market.
While the economy was becoming liberal the rights of the citizens also had to be protected. The economic liberals contended that no regulations are needed for the protection of the citizens as they believed that the market would have resolved it’s difficulties. Polanyi thinks that the idea of self regulating market is utopian and will not last.
He believes that changes in society did not happen just because of class as liberal and Marxist explained it. He thinks that the situation of the work poor in England is the same as Kaffir in South Africa and the Indian masses. Are these people the bottom billion whose condition is the same everywhere? Is their condition parallel even now or are the bottom billion in economically sound countries much better than those in poor countries? Is there any parallel between the situation of the poor in England, Kaffir in South Africa and the Indian masses? It depends on how their situations is viewed if compared with the others in their own country then their situation would seem to parallel each other but their situation cannot be seen as parallel to each other.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Benjamin Franklin
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN:
He was a German-Jewish writer. In the Introduction we are told about the childhood of Benjamin Franklin which set the background to look at his ideas and to understand the reason of his suicide. He belonged to a wealthy Jewish family but was unable to settle in his life as he was “wholly incapable of changing his life’s conditions even when they were about to crush him” (page 7). There was misfortune which enveloped his life and it even hit him when he got a chance to open his career as a writer. According to Benjamin the greatest goal he set for himself was to be “regarded as the foremost critic of German literature,” he further adds that “ the trouble is that for more than fifty years literary criticism in Germany has not been considered a serious genre. To create a place in criticism for oneself means to re-create it as a genre” (pages 23-24).
He was aware that he would never be able to make a living with his pen, according to Benjamin, “there are places in which I can earn a minimum and places in which I can live on a minimum, but there is no place where I can do both” (page 25). He was never able to do both in his lifetime.
Responses to questions raised in the summary of the reading:
Question: Considering the inherent problems of reading a translation, are we interpreting Benjamin's ideas accurately? A different translation of the same essay titles the essay Art Reproduction.
According to Benjamin, a piece of reading which is reproduced again and again and is not read in the context in which it was reproduced loses its authenticity so for a translation this would be one step less than reading the original article which was written thousands of years ago. In the translation, the translator cannot imagine the mind set in which the writer wrote his article and hence cannot translate it accurately no matter how much precision is taken in translating it.
Question: In The Public and its Problems, John Dewey describes the neccesary development of symbol systems that allow a community to connected through elevated communication. Do Film and photography introduce a whole new symbol system?
They introduce a whole new symbol system but not one of elevated communication but according to Benjamin the “quality is always depreciated.” The work of art is removed from its tradition and history when it is reproduced hence it is no longer authentic.
Question: Isn't social networking online an experience of establishing relationships without sensory input?
Social networking is an online experience of establishing relationships and it allows people living in different countries of the world to communicate with each other. It has its advantage of diminishing the physical distance between people but it’s difficult to see what Benjamin might have thought about online relationships. Considering his opinion on other aspects it seems that Benjamin wouldn’t have considered online relationships authentic but then people are physically present on both ends generally when they are networking so he might have thought of it as an authentic experience.
Question: Youtube and blogging now allow everyone to perform and write for their own audience. It is even easier to be a subject but do we now have more performers than audience members?
Now anyone who wishes to perform can do so easily with Youtube and blogging but we are all aware that quality is not always maintained in these performances and there are more performers than audience members and are the values of audience members also changed and they judge the quality of things in a different way altogether.
Question: Is a further development in film the use of brain imaging to see how those impulses look in space and time with cameras that can see brain activity?
Only if the public is interested in seeing brain activity will this development take place. Since the purpose of films is now to appeal to the public so they are made with this point of view and the goal is to capture the imagination of the man. Is this what we want the camera to capture?
He was a German-Jewish writer. In the Introduction we are told about the childhood of Benjamin Franklin which set the background to look at his ideas and to understand the reason of his suicide. He belonged to a wealthy Jewish family but was unable to settle in his life as he was “wholly incapable of changing his life’s conditions even when they were about to crush him” (page 7). There was misfortune which enveloped his life and it even hit him when he got a chance to open his career as a writer. According to Benjamin the greatest goal he set for himself was to be “regarded as the foremost critic of German literature,” he further adds that “ the trouble is that for more than fifty years literary criticism in Germany has not been considered a serious genre. To create a place in criticism for oneself means to re-create it as a genre” (pages 23-24).
He was aware that he would never be able to make a living with his pen, according to Benjamin, “there are places in which I can earn a minimum and places in which I can live on a minimum, but there is no place where I can do both” (page 25). He was never able to do both in his lifetime.
Responses to questions raised in the summary of the reading:
Question: Considering the inherent problems of reading a translation, are we interpreting Benjamin's ideas accurately? A different translation of the same essay titles the essay Art Reproduction.
According to Benjamin, a piece of reading which is reproduced again and again and is not read in the context in which it was reproduced loses its authenticity so for a translation this would be one step less than reading the original article which was written thousands of years ago. In the translation, the translator cannot imagine the mind set in which the writer wrote his article and hence cannot translate it accurately no matter how much precision is taken in translating it.
Question: In The Public and its Problems, John Dewey describes the neccesary development of symbol systems that allow a community to connected through elevated communication. Do Film and photography introduce a whole new symbol system?
They introduce a whole new symbol system but not one of elevated communication but according to Benjamin the “quality is always depreciated.” The work of art is removed from its tradition and history when it is reproduced hence it is no longer authentic.
Question: Isn't social networking online an experience of establishing relationships without sensory input?
Social networking is an online experience of establishing relationships and it allows people living in different countries of the world to communicate with each other. It has its advantage of diminishing the physical distance between people but it’s difficult to see what Benjamin might have thought about online relationships. Considering his opinion on other aspects it seems that Benjamin wouldn’t have considered online relationships authentic but then people are physically present on both ends generally when they are networking so he might have thought of it as an authentic experience.
Question: Youtube and blogging now allow everyone to perform and write for their own audience. It is even easier to be a subject but do we now have more performers than audience members?
Now anyone who wishes to perform can do so easily with Youtube and blogging but we are all aware that quality is not always maintained in these performances and there are more performers than audience members and are the values of audience members also changed and they judge the quality of things in a different way altogether.
Question: Is a further development in film the use of brain imaging to see how those impulses look in space and time with cameras that can see brain activity?
Only if the public is interested in seeing brain activity will this development take place. Since the purpose of films is now to appeal to the public so they are made with this point of view and the goal is to capture the imagination of the man. Is this what we want the camera to capture?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The Public and its Problems
The Public and its Problems
In the first half of the book, the author distinguishes the public from the state by offering multiple definitions of each term. What qualities encompass the public and the state and what are the expectations of the public from the state, and why do we need a state. The public elects the state. The public does not exist until a negative external condition makes it come into being. In the second part of the book, Dewey describes the powerful forces which stop the public from addressing its needs. There are a number of problems which afflict the modern society and the amazing part is that these problems afflict the society today also such as technology, special interests, numbing and distracting entertainment and general selfishness. Well, technology is not so much a afflicting factor anymore as it can even be used to promote democracy and to increase cross country communication and globalization.
He is right to assert that some of the new technologies even at that time are far more desirable topic of discussion for the common man than the latest political news and these things also lead to disintegration of the family. Now, it’s a common scene to see every family member glued in front of a different technological entertainment depending on their age and interests. Technology has been used to improve communication but not to improve public interest in politics.
He says that there are two important factors which can help the public to get rid of the eclipse and to attain a Great Community. One factor is that each individual should have the basic intelligence to engage in political affairs and the second factor is the idea of the individual who knows all situations which require political action.
Public policy is made possible by knowledge and knowledge does not exist unless there is a systematic, thorough and well equipped search and record. Knowledge gets shaped by the private interests of the individuals.
In the first half of the book, the author distinguishes the public from the state by offering multiple definitions of each term. What qualities encompass the public and the state and what are the expectations of the public from the state, and why do we need a state. The public elects the state. The public does not exist until a negative external condition makes it come into being. In the second part of the book, Dewey describes the powerful forces which stop the public from addressing its needs. There are a number of problems which afflict the modern society and the amazing part is that these problems afflict the society today also such as technology, special interests, numbing and distracting entertainment and general selfishness. Well, technology is not so much a afflicting factor anymore as it can even be used to promote democracy and to increase cross country communication and globalization.
He is right to assert that some of the new technologies even at that time are far more desirable topic of discussion for the common man than the latest political news and these things also lead to disintegration of the family. Now, it’s a common scene to see every family member glued in front of a different technological entertainment depending on their age and interests. Technology has been used to improve communication but not to improve public interest in politics.
He says that there are two important factors which can help the public to get rid of the eclipse and to attain a Great Community. One factor is that each individual should have the basic intelligence to engage in political affairs and the second factor is the idea of the individual who knows all situations which require political action.
Public policy is made possible by knowledge and knowledge does not exist unless there is a systematic, thorough and well equipped search and record. Knowledge gets shaped by the private interests of the individuals.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
List of questions about the previous readings
Question about the demassification of knowledge:
It is still prohibitively expensive to truly create knowledge for an individual. Knowledge assets are still copyrightable and patentable, their customization is only at the level of presentation. For example, I customize my google homepage to get news from CNN mixed in with analysis of the events from my favorite blogger and videos from youtube all filtered to my interests. That homepage is unique to me, yes, but it is composed of knowledge assets that are owned by different sources. Copyright and patent laws still apply. The author does not elaborate how and to what extent the existing laws need to be modifed for the thrid wave.
It is still prohibitively expensive to truly create knowledge for an individual. Knowledge assets are still copyrightable and patentable, their customization is only at the level of presentation. For example, I customize my google homepage to get news from CNN mixed in with analysis of the events from my favorite blogger and videos from youtube all filtered to my interests. That homepage is unique to me, yes, but it is composed of knowledge assets that are owned by different sources. Copyright and patent laws still apply. The author does not elaborate how and to what extent the existing laws need to be modifed for the thrid wave.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Information city, the New Economy, and the Network Society
CHAPTER 11: THE INFORMATION CITY, THE NEW ECONOMY, AND THE NETWORK SOCIETY
Summary of the chapter
In this chapter the Writer examines the interactions between the transformation of the economy and the cities in which we live.
The “New Economy” as defined by the Writer, is one in which companies, or firms, or entrepreneurs around the world organize and innovate through, by, and with the Internet, and with those things that the Internet represents.
The fundamental basis of the “New Economy”:
Productivity: According to the Writer, the “New Economy” is essentially based on productivity growth - productivity growth that’s “built upon our ability to do things in a new way with the use of new information technologies.”
In the new economy, the author claims that “people learn to learn” by constantly feeding back knowledge and information into the process of production, management, and distribution, thereby creating “a possibility for constant learning”.
Competitiveness: This is defined as the competition for increasing market share in a globally interdependent environment - by individuals, countries, regions, or firms. This global interdependent system is “new” and enabled by technology. It allows core activities of the economy, including capital markets, large multi-national corporations, key management processes, science and technology, and highly skilled labor to collaborate in real-time on a planetary scale.
Performance: The Writer puts forward the argument that performance in the new economy necessitates that entities take on a new organizational form – that’s networking. Networking is the capacity to assemble resources in a very flexible, adaptable way around projects and to do these projects. When projects are completed, the resources are disassembled and reorganized for other projects – thereby making the project, the unit.
The performance aspect, he argues, is so compelling and “real” that those organizations that are unable to transform themselves into networks, will gradually die out.
The working of the New Economy:
Impact on capital: The writer claims that what happens in this (globally linked and interdependent) financial market, determines everything you do regardless of how innovative you are and how good your products or ideas are. “The only thing that counts ultimately is what the global financial markets think of you”.
The writer provides several examples of how a ‘connected and real-time’ economy has led to changes in societies, enabling individuals and groups taking advantage of the global system – creating possibilities for individuals for instance to move savings from anywhere in the world to anywhere else at electronic-speed.
Impact on Labor: The impact on labor (of this new global economy) has been profound. The newly realized “flexibility” in labor markets and employment, due to access to a global resource pool, has meant “the end of stable employment in the same company, of a predictable career pattern for the rest of your life.”
The Writer points out that “talent, highly skilled labor (has) become a key resource for productivity growth and the key resource for any company. How to produce, attract, retain such labor in the network is indeed a key challenge for companies today.
The writer talks about the evolution of two distinct kinds of labor; the “self-programmable” labor that has the culture and educational capacity to re-program itself throughout its life, and the “generic” labor that understands instructions and executes.
Innovation: The author defines innovation to be the ability to create new products and processes and to think about new relationships between the economy and society. He goes on to point out that the culture of innovation, is the culture of sharing, and not of hiding innovation. It is based on open-source and win-win situations at every level.
The new economy has transformed the way and the pace at which innovation takes place in this globally connected and competitive workplace.
This need to innovate faster and better has also resulted in the creation of “territorial networks” (across the globe) bringing together concentrations of people in specialized domains, making available the necessary “synergy” to innovate.
Challenges of the new Economy for Cities:
The Writer identifies four key challenges:
Individualization and fragmentation of society
Increasing divide between people with vastly different cultures and educational background
Multiculturalism
Territorial divide between places that are connected throughout the world in dynamic networks.
How can cities face these challenges?
Rapid urbanization is a reality, and cities must set themselves up to face the associated challenges and opportunities. Cities have throughout history, been the “seedbeds” of innovation. In the Information Age, cities have become the centers of the new economy and of this new cultural capacity. Cities are also transforming, as they now become global networks of cities connecting each other – creating a world of “cooperating” cities as opposed to “competing” ones.
The Writer makes some key recommendations for the development of cities in the New Economy:
Development of cities as “cultural centers”, offering good educational facilities, good nightclubs, good ideas, good places to live, and then attract young entrepreneurial talent who actually will be the creators of wealth and opportunity.
Cities should make innovative use of technologies, such as public service use of new technologies – in social services, health, education, transportation etc. In this way, the public sector will in fact, help create markets for new technologies.
My comments on the write-up
The rapidly growing, dynamic, and no-end-in-sight globalization process, fuelled by the information technology revolution, has had a profound impact on commerce, societies, cultures, and the individual.
The New Economy is a reality that will continue to transform our workplace and our lives in times to come – further increasing the pace of innovation, as well as creating the need for enhanced skill-sets, talent pools, and an even more dynamic workforce!
While the New Economy continues to pose challenges, asking civilization to adapt accordingly, it is also creating enormous opportunities for regions and parts of this world that now have mass-scale access to ‘current’ information and knowledge – thanks to the underlying information and communications technologies, and have helped bridge the gap.
These regions, countries, and cultures can take advantage of this information and knowledge to ‘ramp-up’ for the future – assuming there’s a willingness to ‘improve’ in these societies, supported by progressive and meaningful governmental policies!
Summary of the chapter
In this chapter the Writer examines the interactions between the transformation of the economy and the cities in which we live.
The “New Economy” as defined by the Writer, is one in which companies, or firms, or entrepreneurs around the world organize and innovate through, by, and with the Internet, and with those things that the Internet represents.
The fundamental basis of the “New Economy”:
Productivity: According to the Writer, the “New Economy” is essentially based on productivity growth - productivity growth that’s “built upon our ability to do things in a new way with the use of new information technologies.”
In the new economy, the author claims that “people learn to learn” by constantly feeding back knowledge and information into the process of production, management, and distribution, thereby creating “a possibility for constant learning”.
Competitiveness: This is defined as the competition for increasing market share in a globally interdependent environment - by individuals, countries, regions, or firms. This global interdependent system is “new” and enabled by technology. It allows core activities of the economy, including capital markets, large multi-national corporations, key management processes, science and technology, and highly skilled labor to collaborate in real-time on a planetary scale.
Performance: The Writer puts forward the argument that performance in the new economy necessitates that entities take on a new organizational form – that’s networking. Networking is the capacity to assemble resources in a very flexible, adaptable way around projects and to do these projects. When projects are completed, the resources are disassembled and reorganized for other projects – thereby making the project, the unit.
The performance aspect, he argues, is so compelling and “real” that those organizations that are unable to transform themselves into networks, will gradually die out.
The working of the New Economy:
Impact on capital: The writer claims that what happens in this (globally linked and interdependent) financial market, determines everything you do regardless of how innovative you are and how good your products or ideas are. “The only thing that counts ultimately is what the global financial markets think of you”.
The writer provides several examples of how a ‘connected and real-time’ economy has led to changes in societies, enabling individuals and groups taking advantage of the global system – creating possibilities for individuals for instance to move savings from anywhere in the world to anywhere else at electronic-speed.
Impact on Labor: The impact on labor (of this new global economy) has been profound. The newly realized “flexibility” in labor markets and employment, due to access to a global resource pool, has meant “the end of stable employment in the same company, of a predictable career pattern for the rest of your life.”
The Writer points out that “talent, highly skilled labor (has) become a key resource for productivity growth and the key resource for any company. How to produce, attract, retain such labor in the network is indeed a key challenge for companies today.
The writer talks about the evolution of two distinct kinds of labor; the “self-programmable” labor that has the culture and educational capacity to re-program itself throughout its life, and the “generic” labor that understands instructions and executes.
Innovation: The author defines innovation to be the ability to create new products and processes and to think about new relationships between the economy and society. He goes on to point out that the culture of innovation, is the culture of sharing, and not of hiding innovation. It is based on open-source and win-win situations at every level.
The new economy has transformed the way and the pace at which innovation takes place in this globally connected and competitive workplace.
This need to innovate faster and better has also resulted in the creation of “territorial networks” (across the globe) bringing together concentrations of people in specialized domains, making available the necessary “synergy” to innovate.
Challenges of the new Economy for Cities:
The Writer identifies four key challenges:
Individualization and fragmentation of society
Increasing divide between people with vastly different cultures and educational background
Multiculturalism
Territorial divide between places that are connected throughout the world in dynamic networks.
How can cities face these challenges?
Rapid urbanization is a reality, and cities must set themselves up to face the associated challenges and opportunities. Cities have throughout history, been the “seedbeds” of innovation. In the Information Age, cities have become the centers of the new economy and of this new cultural capacity. Cities are also transforming, as they now become global networks of cities connecting each other – creating a world of “cooperating” cities as opposed to “competing” ones.
The Writer makes some key recommendations for the development of cities in the New Economy:
Development of cities as “cultural centers”, offering good educational facilities, good nightclubs, good ideas, good places to live, and then attract young entrepreneurial talent who actually will be the creators of wealth and opportunity.
Cities should make innovative use of technologies, such as public service use of new technologies – in social services, health, education, transportation etc. In this way, the public sector will in fact, help create markets for new technologies.
My comments on the write-up
The rapidly growing, dynamic, and no-end-in-sight globalization process, fuelled by the information technology revolution, has had a profound impact on commerce, societies, cultures, and the individual.
The New Economy is a reality that will continue to transform our workplace and our lives in times to come – further increasing the pace of innovation, as well as creating the need for enhanced skill-sets, talent pools, and an even more dynamic workforce!
While the New Economy continues to pose challenges, asking civilization to adapt accordingly, it is also creating enormous opportunities for regions and parts of this world that now have mass-scale access to ‘current’ information and knowledge – thanks to the underlying information and communications technologies, and have helped bridge the gap.
These regions, countries, and cultures can take advantage of this information and knowledge to ‘ramp-up’ for the future – assuming there’s a willingness to ‘improve’ in these societies, supported by progressive and meaningful governmental policies!
Digital maoism
In this article, the author discusses that collective online information like Wikipedia are not reliable sources of information, even though these sites are treated by people as being all accurate. There is a frantic online race to become the most "Meta" site. Collective is not always better than the individual, it can be stupid too. Collective is intelligent when it is guided by intelligent individuals. Empowering the public does not empower the individuals. If wikis are to become influential then they should be improved by mechanisms which have worked in the pre Internet world.
It is true that wikis have come to be regarded as the ultimate truth and now there is a race of more such sites coming up. Some sites like Connexions are trying to solve the authencity issue of wikis but then will they be able to keep up the effort and will they be able to provide authentic information.
It is true that wikis have come to be regarded as the ultimate truth and now there is a race of more such sites coming up. Some sites like Connexions are trying to solve the authencity issue of wikis but then will they be able to keep up the effort and will they be able to provide authentic information.
Global Economy and information age
Reading below, it seems that the global economy and the information age do not have to be exclusionary in nature – they provide plenty of opportunity for gains for all segments of societies – however, governments need to have the right strategies carved out that ensure that everyone can benefit.
Cellphones Become Hot Farming Tool In India
(From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
By Cris Prystay
One day in mid-December, Subhash Arve stood in his grape field outside the village of Boregaon in the Western Indian state of Maharashtra , fretting over whether it was time to spray the first crop of the season with a growth hormone. So he whipped out his mobile phone.
The phone's software, loaded on by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., prompted him to click various icons and answer questions to indicate what variety of grapes he was growing, when he had pruned his vines and what type of grafts he had used. It also instructed him to take four or five photos with the phone's camera. He then keyed in a code, and, minutes later, the details of his crop and photos of the grapes popped up on a computer screen at the Maharashtra Grape Growers Association in Pune, about 140 miles away.
A reading from a soil-analysis sensor planted in the village by Tata Consultancy and a local weather forecast also appeared on the screen. A scientist at the association answered Mr. Arve via a brief text message: Spray now, and use gibberellic acid, a plant hormone that regulates growth and is tricky to apply. Too little or too much can damage the crop. The scientist recommended an exact amount.
Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy began piloting the cellphone-based crop-advisory service in Mr. Arve's village in October. The information-technology consulting arm of the Tata Group hopes the project will spearhead its push into rural markets.
But this project is about far more: The mobile phone is now one of the hottest development tools world-wide. Nongovernmental organizations see cellphones as a way to bolster incomes of the world's poor, while corporations eyeing untapped markets hope new mobile services can boost rural incomes and corporate revenue at the same time. South Asia , where mobile use is rapidly growing, has become a test bed.
Reuters Group PLC is piloting a service in India providing information on crop prices in local markets to farmers, helping them decide to which market in their area they should take their produce on any given day to get the best price. That service, which was offered free to farmers in a few regions in Maharashtra under a pilot program last year, was rolled out statewide in October as a commercial service. Reuters is looking for telecommunications partners to take the service India-wide next year.
In one of the earliest efforts to recognize the cellphone's potential, Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh-based pioneer of microcredit in remote regions, and Grameen Foundation, a separate entity in New York , have helped introduce "village phone" programs in 10 countries, setting up 300,000 women in tiny villages with mobile phones that each woman rents on a per-call basis to her neighbors.
"Mobile phones are a pretty important tool for development. I'd put it up there, just behind education and public health, in the importance to economic growth," says Leonard Waverman, a professor of economics at London Business School who has studied the impact of telecommunications on economic growth and productivity.
Although as few as 4% to 5% of rural Indians have cellphones, about 50% of new customers are expected to come from rural areas over the next two to three years, according to estimates from Bharti Airtel Ltd. in India. The expanding number of phones helps raise rural incomes in some simple ways. It makes carpenters, weavers and plumbers more reachable by their customers, and it gives better information to farmers and fishermen about where to sell their harvests.
A Harvard University economist's study on the impact of mobile-phone usage among fishermen in Kerala, India, found that the variation in fish prices in Kerala dropped to 15% from 70%, and the wastage of each daily catch to near zero from 5% to 8%, after 2001, by which time most fishermen and traders were using cellphones to coordinate with traders in various markets to determine to which port they would deliver their daily catch. The fishermen's profits increased an average of 8%, even as the price paid by consumers for fish dropped 4%.
Specialized software and information services, like the one that Tata Consultancy is piloting, add momentum to the development trend. The company hopes its service will address a host of problems faced by rural farmers. Not only do many have to guess which market is best for selling their crops, they struggle to use modern fertilizers and pesticides. Many are illiterate so they can't read instructions.
The consulting firm has designed its software to use icons and simple instructions in local dialects to get around the literacy problem. Besides connecting farmers with local crop experts at government research institutions and universities, Tata Consultancy plans to offer other information, like daily crop prices from local markets, transit schedules, and regional job postings.
"If we are able to create meaningful applications for the Indian farmer, the potential is huge," says K. Ananth Krishnan, Tata Consultancy's chief technology officer. There are more than 200 million people in India who work in the agricultural sector, and are underserved by mobile companies, he says.
There are hurdles. Navigating a complex phone menu is a challenge, so the high illiteracy rate hurts. Tata Consultancy uses icons primarily to guide participants through the process of sending queries. But the farmers have to be somewhat literate, because some prompts are in text.
The price of the handsets also must be kept low, no small feat. They generally must be sturdier than those sold in cities, with higher audio levels to overcome noise in market places, longer battery lives and quicker recharge times. The design also must protect electronic components from the heat. Tata Consultancy is considering co-branding phones with companies that want to advertise to farmers, like fertilizer or seed companies, to keep down costs.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Cellphones Become Hot Farming Tool In India
(From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
By Cris Prystay
One day in mid-December, Subhash Arve stood in his grape field outside the village of Boregaon in the Western Indian state of Maharashtra , fretting over whether it was time to spray the first crop of the season with a growth hormone. So he whipped out his mobile phone.
The phone's software, loaded on by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., prompted him to click various icons and answer questions to indicate what variety of grapes he was growing, when he had pruned his vines and what type of grafts he had used. It also instructed him to take four or five photos with the phone's camera. He then keyed in a code, and, minutes later, the details of his crop and photos of the grapes popped up on a computer screen at the Maharashtra Grape Growers Association in Pune, about 140 miles away.
A reading from a soil-analysis sensor planted in the village by Tata Consultancy and a local weather forecast also appeared on the screen. A scientist at the association answered Mr. Arve via a brief text message: Spray now, and use gibberellic acid, a plant hormone that regulates growth and is tricky to apply. Too little or too much can damage the crop. The scientist recommended an exact amount.
Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy began piloting the cellphone-based crop-advisory service in Mr. Arve's village in October. The information-technology consulting arm of the Tata Group hopes the project will spearhead its push into rural markets.
But this project is about far more: The mobile phone is now one of the hottest development tools world-wide. Nongovernmental organizations see cellphones as a way to bolster incomes of the world's poor, while corporations eyeing untapped markets hope new mobile services can boost rural incomes and corporate revenue at the same time. South Asia , where mobile use is rapidly growing, has become a test bed.
Reuters Group PLC is piloting a service in India providing information on crop prices in local markets to farmers, helping them decide to which market in their area they should take their produce on any given day to get the best price. That service, which was offered free to farmers in a few regions in Maharashtra under a pilot program last year, was rolled out statewide in October as a commercial service. Reuters is looking for telecommunications partners to take the service India-wide next year.
In one of the earliest efforts to recognize the cellphone's potential, Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh-based pioneer of microcredit in remote regions, and Grameen Foundation, a separate entity in New York , have helped introduce "village phone" programs in 10 countries, setting up 300,000 women in tiny villages with mobile phones that each woman rents on a per-call basis to her neighbors.
"Mobile phones are a pretty important tool for development. I'd put it up there, just behind education and public health, in the importance to economic growth," says Leonard Waverman, a professor of economics at London Business School who has studied the impact of telecommunications on economic growth and productivity.
Although as few as 4% to 5% of rural Indians have cellphones, about 50% of new customers are expected to come from rural areas over the next two to three years, according to estimates from Bharti Airtel Ltd. in India. The expanding number of phones helps raise rural incomes in some simple ways. It makes carpenters, weavers and plumbers more reachable by their customers, and it gives better information to farmers and fishermen about where to sell their harvests.
A Harvard University economist's study on the impact of mobile-phone usage among fishermen in Kerala, India, found that the variation in fish prices in Kerala dropped to 15% from 70%, and the wastage of each daily catch to near zero from 5% to 8%, after 2001, by which time most fishermen and traders were using cellphones to coordinate with traders in various markets to determine to which port they would deliver their daily catch. The fishermen's profits increased an average of 8%, even as the price paid by consumers for fish dropped 4%.
Specialized software and information services, like the one that Tata Consultancy is piloting, add momentum to the development trend. The company hopes its service will address a host of problems faced by rural farmers. Not only do many have to guess which market is best for selling their crops, they struggle to use modern fertilizers and pesticides. Many are illiterate so they can't read instructions.
The consulting firm has designed its software to use icons and simple instructions in local dialects to get around the literacy problem. Besides connecting farmers with local crop experts at government research institutions and universities, Tata Consultancy plans to offer other information, like daily crop prices from local markets, transit schedules, and regional job postings.
"If we are able to create meaningful applications for the Indian farmer, the potential is huge," says K. Ananth Krishnan, Tata Consultancy's chief technology officer. There are more than 200 million people in India who work in the agricultural sector, and are underserved by mobile companies, he says.
There are hurdles. Navigating a complex phone menu is a challenge, so the high illiteracy rate hurts. Tata Consultancy uses icons primarily to guide participants through the process of sending queries. But the farmers have to be somewhat literate, because some prompts are in text.
The price of the handsets also must be kept low, no small feat. They generally must be sturdier than those sold in cities, with higher audio levels to overcome noise in market places, longer battery lives and quicker recharge times. The design also must protect electronic components from the heat. Tata Consultancy is considering co-branding phones with companies that want to advertise to farmers, like fertilizer or seed companies, to keep down costs.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
An Introduction to the Information Age: Analysis
In this chapter, the Writer analyzes the dynamics of the “network society” – an emerging, dominant social structure that he finds characteristic of information capitalism around the world.
He focuses on the identification and analysis of main features of the network society, highlighting the profound difference in impact that Information capitalism continues to have on civilization, cultures, as well as on world history compared with the impact of Industrial capitalism.
While I appreciate the analysis and reasoning put forward by the Writer for most part, I bring out alternative views on some of the aspects below:
The writer argues that the informational and global economies (supported at the core by advances in information technology and global information networks), are evermore exclusionary in nature. These economies are characterized by an extremely uneven geography in their endeavor to “optimize” linkages between valuable inputs, markets, and individuals – thereby switching-off the unskilled worker and poor communities. He introduces the notion of a cross-geographic “Fourth World” of exclusion. The forth world consisting of predominantly unskilled, deprived communities not only in Africa and rural Asia, but also including communities in places such as Latin American shanties and South Bronx.
In my opinion, while the phenomenal growth of the information economy has exerted a great deal of pressure on societies and individuals to “re-tool” themselves, opportunities for poorer and unskilled communities have not necessarily diminished in “most” geographical regions.
As enterprises go global, in their pursuit to maximize “value” they establish global linkages, transfer knowledge, build capacity, and expand operations if viable. This gives regions, countries, and local institutions opportunities to leverage their competitive advantage whether in raw material, finished products, or services, to lure investment. There are plenty of examples from India to the middle-east, and beyond, where this has led to the creation of high-performance business hubs. That means, increased demand for building/improving infrastructure, higher demand for skilled and unskilled workforce, higher wages, more money in the local economy, more demand for local products and services, more money to fund public sector improvement projects, improved living standards, and better education that leads to the necessary re-tooling. The process, therefore, continues iteratively, over a period of time.
Why are some countries able to take advantage of the globalization phenomena while other aren’t? This is a more complex question, and has a lot do to with the prevailing “internal” stability of the county, governance issues, and the state of the economy in general. Globalization, however, should act as a motivator for such countries to improve their internal state of affairs, and develop capabilities in “some” industry areas in order to attract foreign investment.
The exclusion problem, however, will unfortunately have a negative (but temporary) impact on unskilled workforce in the technology advanced countries. This could lead to worker anxiety and even more serious problems for individuals and communities. However, these countries typically have the resources to initiate mid-to-long-term projects that can help retool effected communities.
Another revolutionary aspect associated with the network society is the role of media, and how it has influenced cultures, and vice-e-versa.
The Writer talks about the culture of “real virtuality”. In the network society, cultural expressions are increasingly shaped by electronic media. Media are extraordinarily diverse, increasingly inclusive, and bridging from one to another – from network TV to cable, to radio, musical video, to walkman. Media is also fast becoming more interactive. There is increasing interaction by and among individuals that break up the uniformity of mass audience.
Global media of all kinds has certainly been instrumental in helping communities and cultures become more “aware” and collaborative. It has opened up enormous learning opportunities for communities outside the group of more advanced nations. Who could have thought 20 years ago that a person sitting in a remote town somewhere in Africa or the Asian sub-continent will have access to advanced course material at MIT via MIT’s web-based open courseware project. Who could have thought a few years back that a person sitting in an ordinary college in somewhere in Bangladesh would be interacting with leading academicians around the world via video conferencing.
The transition from TV to the Internet and now cell-phones with multi-media content has led to an explosion in information sharing anytime, and almost anywhere.
To conclude, the Information Age and its impact on the way the world works today, is phenomenal – something that the world is still in the process of understanding
He focuses on the identification and analysis of main features of the network society, highlighting the profound difference in impact that Information capitalism continues to have on civilization, cultures, as well as on world history compared with the impact of Industrial capitalism.
While I appreciate the analysis and reasoning put forward by the Writer for most part, I bring out alternative views on some of the aspects below:
The writer argues that the informational and global economies (supported at the core by advances in information technology and global information networks), are evermore exclusionary in nature. These economies are characterized by an extremely uneven geography in their endeavor to “optimize” linkages between valuable inputs, markets, and individuals – thereby switching-off the unskilled worker and poor communities. He introduces the notion of a cross-geographic “Fourth World” of exclusion. The forth world consisting of predominantly unskilled, deprived communities not only in Africa and rural Asia, but also including communities in places such as Latin American shanties and South Bronx.
In my opinion, while the phenomenal growth of the information economy has exerted a great deal of pressure on societies and individuals to “re-tool” themselves, opportunities for poorer and unskilled communities have not necessarily diminished in “most” geographical regions.
As enterprises go global, in their pursuit to maximize “value” they establish global linkages, transfer knowledge, build capacity, and expand operations if viable. This gives regions, countries, and local institutions opportunities to leverage their competitive advantage whether in raw material, finished products, or services, to lure investment. There are plenty of examples from India to the middle-east, and beyond, where this has led to the creation of high-performance business hubs. That means, increased demand for building/improving infrastructure, higher demand for skilled and unskilled workforce, higher wages, more money in the local economy, more demand for local products and services, more money to fund public sector improvement projects, improved living standards, and better education that leads to the necessary re-tooling. The process, therefore, continues iteratively, over a period of time.
Why are some countries able to take advantage of the globalization phenomena while other aren’t? This is a more complex question, and has a lot do to with the prevailing “internal” stability of the county, governance issues, and the state of the economy in general. Globalization, however, should act as a motivator for such countries to improve their internal state of affairs, and develop capabilities in “some” industry areas in order to attract foreign investment.
The exclusion problem, however, will unfortunately have a negative (but temporary) impact on unskilled workforce in the technology advanced countries. This could lead to worker anxiety and even more serious problems for individuals and communities. However, these countries typically have the resources to initiate mid-to-long-term projects that can help retool effected communities.
Another revolutionary aspect associated with the network society is the role of media, and how it has influenced cultures, and vice-e-versa.
The Writer talks about the culture of “real virtuality”. In the network society, cultural expressions are increasingly shaped by electronic media. Media are extraordinarily diverse, increasingly inclusive, and bridging from one to another – from network TV to cable, to radio, musical video, to walkman. Media is also fast becoming more interactive. There is increasing interaction by and among individuals that break up the uniformity of mass audience.
Global media of all kinds has certainly been instrumental in helping communities and cultures become more “aware” and collaborative. It has opened up enormous learning opportunities for communities outside the group of more advanced nations. Who could have thought 20 years ago that a person sitting in a remote town somewhere in Africa or the Asian sub-continent will have access to advanced course material at MIT via MIT’s web-based open courseware project. Who could have thought a few years back that a person sitting in an ordinary college in somewhere in Bangladesh would be interacting with leading academicians around the world via video conferencing.
The transition from TV to the Internet and now cell-phones with multi-media content has led to an explosion in information sharing anytime, and almost anywhere.
To conclude, the Information Age and its impact on the way the world works today, is phenomenal – something that the world is still in the process of understanding
An Introduction to the Information Age: Summary
Summary of the Article:
Brief summary:
In this chapter, the writer attempts to analyze the dynamics of the “network society” – an emerging, dominant social structure that he finds characteristic of information capitalism around the world.
He argues that without the Information Technology Revolution of the mid-eighties and nineties, the Network Society could not have taken up such a “comprehensive and persuasive social form”.
He identifies a set of “main features” of the network society, and uses his analysis to highlight how profoundly different Information capitalism is from Industrial capitalism. The key features of the network society include:
An informational economy, in which sources of productivity and competitiveness of firms, countries, regions depend evermore on knowledge, information and the technology of processing, as well as the management of technology. The writer argues that the informational economy is more exclusionary in nature than industrial economy, due to its inherent dynamism and creativity.
A global economy, is an economy whose core, strategically dominant activities have the potential to operate as a unit in real-time on a planetary scale. The writer argues that although the global economy reaches out to the whole planet, it is not all-encompassing in nature, and is characterized by an extremely uneven geography in its endeavor to “optimize” linkages between valuable inputs, markets, and individuals – thereby switching-off unskilled labour and poor communities. The writer introduces the notion of the emergence of a cross-geographic “fourth world” of exclusion, as opposed to the traditional first world/third world opposition. The forth world consists of predominantly unskilled, deprived communities not only in Africa and rural Asia, but also in Latin American Shanties and South Bronx.
The network enterprise, a specific set of linkages between different entities, organized ad hoc for specific projects, and dissolving/reforming after the task is completed. Multinational corporations for instance, operating world-wide with internal decentralization and a web of subsidiaries and supplies dotted around the globe. Other examples include link-ups between corporations and networks of small businesses through subcontracting and outsourcing – relationships made effective in part by underlying information and communication networks.
The transformation of work and employment: the flexi-workers. The writer argues that “technologically laggard” regions, countries, and sectors exhibit much higher rates of unemployment than in technologically advanced countries. However, new technologies have allowed businesses to automate, outsource, subcontract, and even relocate jobs globally - thanks to the networked enterprise model and a globally connected economy. This creates job anxiety and discontent even in technologically advanced countries such as the US. The network enterprise model has led to a paradigm shift in contractual relationships between management and labour. More and more workforce is becoming part-time and subcontracted. The write cites the example of the “organization man” being replaced with the “flexible woman”.
Social polarization and social exclusion. Globalization and individualization of labour, weaken social organization and institutions that protect workers. Workers are increasingly left to themselves to maintain relationships with management. In the Information Age, redefinition of skills and education is a constant phenomenon, leading to valorization or devaluing of people in their work. This itself is a contributor towards inequality, social polarization, and social excluding. The writer points out that the Information Age does not have to be the age of staggering inequality, but for the moment it is so.
The culture or real virtuality. In the network society, cultural expressions are increasingly shaped by electronic media. Media are extraordinarily diverse, increasingly inclusive, and bridging from one to another – from network TV to cable, to radio, musical video, to walkman. Media is also fast becoming more interactive. There is increasing interaction by and among individuals that break up the uniformity of mass audience.
Politics: Flexible media has a fundamental effect on politics. Without significant presence in the space of media, actors and ideas are reduced to political marginality. Political marketing is the essential means to win political competition in democratic politics. In the information age that means more advertising, phone banks, targeted mailing, image making, image unmaking, image control etc. And then there is scandal politics, and subsequent damage control.
Timeless time: “It is defined by the use of new information/communication technologies to annihilate time, to compress years into seconds”. Examples would be split-second financial transactions of global financial markets, and new reproductive techniques allowing people a wide range of options in parenting – even storing embryos to produce babies later.
Brief summary:
In this chapter, the writer attempts to analyze the dynamics of the “network society” – an emerging, dominant social structure that he finds characteristic of information capitalism around the world.
He argues that without the Information Technology Revolution of the mid-eighties and nineties, the Network Society could not have taken up such a “comprehensive and persuasive social form”.
He identifies a set of “main features” of the network society, and uses his analysis to highlight how profoundly different Information capitalism is from Industrial capitalism. The key features of the network society include:
An informational economy, in which sources of productivity and competitiveness of firms, countries, regions depend evermore on knowledge, information and the technology of processing, as well as the management of technology. The writer argues that the informational economy is more exclusionary in nature than industrial economy, due to its inherent dynamism and creativity.
A global economy, is an economy whose core, strategically dominant activities have the potential to operate as a unit in real-time on a planetary scale. The writer argues that although the global economy reaches out to the whole planet, it is not all-encompassing in nature, and is characterized by an extremely uneven geography in its endeavor to “optimize” linkages between valuable inputs, markets, and individuals – thereby switching-off unskilled labour and poor communities. The writer introduces the notion of the emergence of a cross-geographic “fourth world” of exclusion, as opposed to the traditional first world/third world opposition. The forth world consists of predominantly unskilled, deprived communities not only in Africa and rural Asia, but also in Latin American Shanties and South Bronx.
The network enterprise, a specific set of linkages between different entities, organized ad hoc for specific projects, and dissolving/reforming after the task is completed. Multinational corporations for instance, operating world-wide with internal decentralization and a web of subsidiaries and supplies dotted around the globe. Other examples include link-ups between corporations and networks of small businesses through subcontracting and outsourcing – relationships made effective in part by underlying information and communication networks.
The transformation of work and employment: the flexi-workers. The writer argues that “technologically laggard” regions, countries, and sectors exhibit much higher rates of unemployment than in technologically advanced countries. However, new technologies have allowed businesses to automate, outsource, subcontract, and even relocate jobs globally - thanks to the networked enterprise model and a globally connected economy. This creates job anxiety and discontent even in technologically advanced countries such as the US. The network enterprise model has led to a paradigm shift in contractual relationships between management and labour. More and more workforce is becoming part-time and subcontracted. The write cites the example of the “organization man” being replaced with the “flexible woman”.
Social polarization and social exclusion. Globalization and individualization of labour, weaken social organization and institutions that protect workers. Workers are increasingly left to themselves to maintain relationships with management. In the Information Age, redefinition of skills and education is a constant phenomenon, leading to valorization or devaluing of people in their work. This itself is a contributor towards inequality, social polarization, and social excluding. The writer points out that the Information Age does not have to be the age of staggering inequality, but for the moment it is so.
The culture or real virtuality. In the network society, cultural expressions are increasingly shaped by electronic media. Media are extraordinarily diverse, increasingly inclusive, and bridging from one to another – from network TV to cable, to radio, musical video, to walkman. Media is also fast becoming more interactive. There is increasing interaction by and among individuals that break up the uniformity of mass audience.
Politics: Flexible media has a fundamental effect on politics. Without significant presence in the space of media, actors and ideas are reduced to political marginality. Political marketing is the essential means to win political competition in democratic politics. In the information age that means more advertising, phone banks, targeted mailing, image making, image unmaking, image control etc. And then there is scandal politics, and subsequent damage control.
Timeless time: “It is defined by the use of new information/communication technologies to annihilate time, to compress years into seconds”. Examples would be split-second financial transactions of global financial markets, and new reproductive techniques allowing people a wide range of options in parenting – even storing embryos to produce babies later.
The Cyber Space and the American Dream
The author defines the third wave as the wave of actionable knowledge and argues that this wave would have as big as impact on every aspect of human life as did the industrial revolution.
In my opinion, the author covers the breadth of change that this wave of cyber revolution will bring to the world but overestimates its impact on different aspects of life and on the american dream.
There are two key ideas in this article:
1. Due to the ubiquitous connectivity, information would be readily available. We see that taking place all around us. Generally it takes just a few searches on google to find the information one is looking for. When information is available so readily, the value-chain has shifted from its production to its analysis and customization for individual needs. The author argues that in this third wave highly customized knowledge, the intellectual and property rights have to be redefined as knowledge has become a private good, customized to serve individual needs.
In my opinion, the author's argument is vague at best. It is not clear how demassification of knowledge makes it a private good. With innovation in technology, it is now possible to fetch information from multiple sources and filter it to fit individual needs. However it is still prohibitively expensive to truly create knowledge for an individual. Knowledge assets are still copyrightable and patentable, their customization is only at the level of presentation. For example, I customize my google homepage to get news from CNN mixed in with analysis of the events from my favorite blogger and videos from youtube all filtered to my interests. That homepage is unique to me, yes, but it is composed of knowledge assets that are owned by different sources. Copyright and patent laws still apply. The author does not elaborate how and to what extent the existing laws need to be modifed for the thrid wave.
2. Governments and laws need to be reformed
In my opinion, the author covers the breadth of change that this wave of cyber revolution will bring to the world but overestimates its impact on different aspects of life and on the american dream.
There are two key ideas in this article:
1. Due to the ubiquitous connectivity, information would be readily available. We see that taking place all around us. Generally it takes just a few searches on google to find the information one is looking for. When information is available so readily, the value-chain has shifted from its production to its analysis and customization for individual needs. The author argues that in this third wave highly customized knowledge, the intellectual and property rights have to be redefined as knowledge has become a private good, customized to serve individual needs.
In my opinion, the author's argument is vague at best. It is not clear how demassification of knowledge makes it a private good. With innovation in technology, it is now possible to fetch information from multiple sources and filter it to fit individual needs. However it is still prohibitively expensive to truly create knowledge for an individual. Knowledge assets are still copyrightable and patentable, their customization is only at the level of presentation. For example, I customize my google homepage to get news from CNN mixed in with analysis of the events from my favorite blogger and videos from youtube all filtered to my interests. That homepage is unique to me, yes, but it is composed of knowledge assets that are owned by different sources. Copyright and patent laws still apply. The author does not elaborate how and to what extent the existing laws need to be modifed for the thrid wave.
2. Governments and laws need to be reformed
Friday, February 8, 2008
An Introduction to the Information Stage
The global economy is the new reality, it reaches out to the whole planet, but it is not planetory as it does not include the whole planet. Now there is a fourth world which is created and it is mostly women and children. The network enterprise is the network made either from segments or segments of firms, or from internal segmentation of firms. It is the specific set of linkages between different firms or segments. The work and employment have transformed in the information age because of the rise of flexi workers. The general trend in all the countries is rapid growth of self employment, temporary work, and part time, particularly for women. The individualization of work, and therefore of labour's bargaining power is the main feature of employment in the network society.
For the time Information age is the age of stepped up inequality, ploarization and social exclusion. Cultural expressions are shaped by electronic media which has led to the production of customized cottages instead of a global village. The enclosure of communication has a profound effect on politics as it can be used by a political party to transform the media in their favor as is the practice in some of hte countries like Pakistan where the ruling party tries to control media. The Information Age is also organized around new forms of time and space: timeless time and the space of flows. Because of the information technologies time is compressed in seconds, and split seconds. Space is the material support of time sharing social practices. Segments of the space of flows are penetrated by forces of resistance to domination, and by expressions of personal experiences.
Networks transform power relationships but power still exists in the traditional sense. However, there is some order of power as the power of flows in the network prevail over the flows of power.
A lot of research is being done on the effects of information age and how culture is transformed. The role of the media however will vary from context to context. Timeless space is an interesting phenomenon also.
For the time Information age is the age of stepped up inequality, ploarization and social exclusion. Cultural expressions are shaped by electronic media which has led to the production of customized cottages instead of a global village. The enclosure of communication has a profound effect on politics as it can be used by a political party to transform the media in their favor as is the practice in some of hte countries like Pakistan where the ruling party tries to control media. The Information Age is also organized around new forms of time and space: timeless time and the space of flows. Because of the information technologies time is compressed in seconds, and split seconds. Space is the material support of time sharing social practices. Segments of the space of flows are penetrated by forces of resistance to domination, and by expressions of personal experiences.
Networks transform power relationships but power still exists in the traditional sense. However, there is some order of power as the power of flows in the network prevail over the flows of power.
A lot of research is being done on the effects of information age and how culture is transformed. The role of the media however will vary from context to context. Timeless space is an interesting phenomenon also.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Just joined the course
Dear all,
I have just joined the course and I have missed two class sessions so this weekend I have been trying to catch up on the missed reading assignments. This post is about this week's reading "Steve Review: The Economics of Climate Change."
General reflections on the human experience:
This article dicusses one of the critical dilemmas that human beings face all over the world - climate change is global and international collective action is critical for an effective and efficient response to this challenge. Climate change also is a challenge for economics as it is the widest ranging market failure ever seen. The changes can change the physical geography of the world which will affect where people live and how they live their lives. The risks of serious, irreversible impacts of climate change increase as the concentration of greenhouse gases rises in the atmosphere. In the higher latitudes cold realted deaths will increase but the climate change will increase worldwide deaths from malnutrition and heat. Diseases such as malaria and dengue fever will spread if steps are not taken to stop the effects of climate change. People will also become displaced because of rising sea levels, heavy floods and intense droughts. The poorest countries and people will suffer the earliest. Illness will increase in the poor countries and so will the death rate. In higher latitudes the countries will face the most rapid rates of warming. Emissions are affected by economic growth however the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere is possible and consistent with continued growth. When estimating the costs of shifting from a high carbon to a low carbon trajectory one should consider that there will be an expected annual cost of emissions reductions consistent with a trajectory leading to stabilisation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Efforts to reduce emissions rapidly will be very costly in the beginning. However delay in taking action on climate change will make more negative changes in climate and would lead to higher mitigation costs. Costs of mitigation of around 1% of GDP are small when compared to the costs and risks of climate change which can be avoided. For the economy as a whole, there will be benefits from innovation which will reduce some of these costs. Climate policy if designed well, will lead to reducing ill health and mortality from air pollution and to the preservation of forests.
Policy to reduce emissions needs to be based on three essential elements which are carbon pricing, technology policy, and removal of barriers to behavioral change. Carbon price needs to be established through tax, trading or regulation. A range of low carbon and high efficiency technologies need to be developed. The challanege of adaptation is critical in developing countries as greater vulnerability and poverty reduce the capacity to act. International cooperation is needed to cover all aspects of policy to reduce emissions and leadership needs to be shown by different countries in different ways.
The transfer of technologies to developing countries by the private sector can be accelerated by international cooperation. Some countries have already taken the initiative like the Kyoto Protocol is currently the main channel for supporting low-carbon investment in developing countries. More money needs to be invested in low-carbon development paths. Stopping deforestation is also a highly cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Adaptation efforts in developing countries needs to be accelerated and supported.
Ideas that relate to personal experience or interests:
I have just joined the course and I have missed two class sessions so this weekend I have been trying to catch up on the missed reading assignments. This post is about this week's reading "Steve Review: The Economics of Climate Change."
General reflections on the human experience:
This article dicusses one of the critical dilemmas that human beings face all over the world - climate change is global and international collective action is critical for an effective and efficient response to this challenge. Climate change also is a challenge for economics as it is the widest ranging market failure ever seen. The changes can change the physical geography of the world which will affect where people live and how they live their lives. The risks of serious, irreversible impacts of climate change increase as the concentration of greenhouse gases rises in the atmosphere. In the higher latitudes cold realted deaths will increase but the climate change will increase worldwide deaths from malnutrition and heat. Diseases such as malaria and dengue fever will spread if steps are not taken to stop the effects of climate change. People will also become displaced because of rising sea levels, heavy floods and intense droughts. The poorest countries and people will suffer the earliest. Illness will increase in the poor countries and so will the death rate. In higher latitudes the countries will face the most rapid rates of warming. Emissions are affected by economic growth however the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere is possible and consistent with continued growth. When estimating the costs of shifting from a high carbon to a low carbon trajectory one should consider that there will be an expected annual cost of emissions reductions consistent with a trajectory leading to stabilisation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Efforts to reduce emissions rapidly will be very costly in the beginning. However delay in taking action on climate change will make more negative changes in climate and would lead to higher mitigation costs. Costs of mitigation of around 1% of GDP are small when compared to the costs and risks of climate change which can be avoided. For the economy as a whole, there will be benefits from innovation which will reduce some of these costs. Climate policy if designed well, will lead to reducing ill health and mortality from air pollution and to the preservation of forests.
Policy to reduce emissions needs to be based on three essential elements which are carbon pricing, technology policy, and removal of barriers to behavioral change. Carbon price needs to be established through tax, trading or regulation. A range of low carbon and high efficiency technologies need to be developed. The challanege of adaptation is critical in developing countries as greater vulnerability and poverty reduce the capacity to act. International cooperation is needed to cover all aspects of policy to reduce emissions and leadership needs to be shown by different countries in different ways.
The transfer of technologies to developing countries by the private sector can be accelerated by international cooperation. Some countries have already taken the initiative like the Kyoto Protocol is currently the main channel for supporting low-carbon investment in developing countries. More money needs to be invested in low-carbon development paths. Stopping deforestation is also a highly cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Adaptation efforts in developing countries needs to be accelerated and supported.
Ideas that relate to personal experience or interests:
Coming from a third world country, the ideas that the required changes are difficult to be implemented in third world countries resonate to me because I am from a third world country. In the developing countries there are such a vast number of pressing issues like poverty and wide spread disease that climate is something that policy makers or government will never think about. There is so much to be done now that looking ahead in the future of what affect the climate change will have on the lives of people is just too much for them to plan for. However the initiatives taken by the other developed countries in Asia like Japan to help the other countries to stop pollution on the roads by working on projects to implement this are really helpful. The Japanese have set up an office that works on such issues. They look at the rate of growing pollution on the roads and then they work on projects to make changes in the cars being developed in Pakistan and to introduce some cheap means on how can this be controlled.
The emphasis placed by the author on the fact that more needs to be done by the developed countries in this regard should be taken seriously or everyone will suffer. The idea that we are all in this together is nicely taken up even though the developing countries will be hit first of all by this crisis. In Pakistan there was a widespread of denegue fever a few months ago when I was there and right now the country is dealing with the crisis of bird flu so these things which have been predicted by the author as signs of climate change have already started happening.
I like the idea of how living in all these different countries and speaking so many different languages we are all tied together in one common thing - the planet earth.
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