Monday, December 9, 2013
TWIF Flattener #9 - In-Forming
Use one of the current events sources linked at http://svhs-hwc-spring2014.blogspot.com/2013/12/approved-sources-for-twif-current.html to find a recent news article that relates to, supports, or refutes Friedman's assertion that in-forming was a "flattener." Your comment should include the title of the news article, a link to the article, and a summary of the article including an explanation of how the article relates to this point. Don't forget to check your rubric for evaluation criteria!
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Feds Can’t Enforce Net Neutrality: What This Means for You
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/14/262454310/feds-cant-enforce-net-neutrality-what-this-means-for-you
This article discusses the controversial federal appeals court decision that states that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cannot enforce net neutrality. Net neutrality is the fact “that all Internet users deserve equal access to online information.” To put it differently, take this quote from Time magazine concerning the rules Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must abide by: “First, the order requires ISPs to be transparent about how they handle network congestion; second, the ISPs are prohibited from blocking traffic such as Skype or Netflix on wired networks; third, the order outlaws 'unreasonable' discrimination, meaning the ISPs can't put such services into an Internet 'slow lane' in order to benefit their own competing services." In summary, companies must give you access to all sources even if it goes against that companies financial wants. The dismissal of net neutrality could seriously harm the informing flattener if it is dismissed. If no measure is put in to counteract this, the information given to a consumer could be easily biased towards a companies profit. For example, a person has internet company A, which owns the conservative news site B while news site C is unbiased. The person uses company A but is only given news site B because company A owns it, and not because it is more factual, not because it is more relevant, and not because it is a coincidence. The information going to a person would be controlled by a company which makes forming educated opinions more challenging. To finalize, net neutrality is essential to the informing flatteners unbiased and helpful nature.
Are Bigger Search Engines Better?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/media/041122MOSTWANTED.html
TWIF tells the reader that Google and other search engines were made to let people have an easier way to look up information. Google has over a million links to websites for every single search. The article relates to TWIF because it tells how many people use a search engine every year. Google and other bigger search engines get over a billion searches every year. Both the article and TWIF explain that people use search engines to find out any information that they want to learn about. Also, both tell the everyday use and importance of Google and other search engines.
This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pri.org/stories/2013-11-16/google-ad-has-moved-people-tears-across-indian-and-pakistan
This article is the perfect example of how browsers like Google give people information and help connect people. Thomas Friedman explained that these browsers helped people find anyone or anything, and that these browsers helped create communities that could work together. This article explains that this ad is about one man's granddaughter uses Google to find the man's childhood friend and contacts him. Google allowed these two friends to reunite by giving information and that is exactly what informing does.
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ReplyDeleteGoogle opens first data centers in Asia
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25328932
Thomas Friedman's fifth flattener describes informing. Informing is flattening the world because it allows people to gather information and search for knowledge in a fool proof way. Google is the search engine that changed the world. This article relates to The World is Flat because it explains the expansion of internet use in Asia. Because of the demand of the search engine, Google is now opening up a center in Taiwan and Singapore. This will allow Asia to become even more connected with America with information and opportunity of technological advancement. "Informing is the ability to build and deploy your own personal supply chain" which is exactly what the new expansion of Google centers is doing.
Yes, I sometimes Google my patients. Is this surprising?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/08/google-patients-gp-rapport-pitfalls
In The World is Flat, Friedman states that Google has changed the way people access knowledge. This article is about doctors that search their patients on google after a meeting because they claim that they have done something out of the ordinary. This relates to TWIF because the flattener on informing explains that with something like Google, one can access all of the knowledge in the world at the click of a button. Then in the article, doctors can access information about their patients with such ease simply because they are curious and they have the ability to. The article explains that doing this also has downfalls because it may not be reliable, because how Friedman explains in another flattener, anyone can post anything on the internet, then in this flattener, that information--possibly false--can be searched.
When Doctors ‘Google’ Their Patients, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/when-doctors-google-their-patients-2/
ReplyDeleteThis article is about how doctors and other medical professionals will sometimes use Google to find things out about their patients. For example one of his patients came in and after an exam it showed that she had traces of cocaine in her system. After looking her over and her saying that she had no idea of how it got there he got worried that she had been abused. Then after leaving the room a nurse showing him a picture of the woman on a mugshot website being arrested for cocaine possession. He decided that this was an evasion of privacy and decided not to mention it when walking back in.This has to do with what Friedman says about the way that Google provides anyone with a computer a nearly infinite amount of information at a moments notice .
Warren Buffett offers $1 billion for perfect NCAA brackethttp://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0121/Warren-Buffett-offers-1-billion-for-perfect-NCAA-bracket
ReplyDeleteWarren Buffett agreed to pay 40 annual payments of 25 million each year to an entrant that guesses the perfect NCAA bracket. Anyone could find this out by searching on Google about it. In this flattener Friedman talks about how any person could search any information in the world and gather it because of google. Informing in this case is a benefit to that person who is able to win this contest. Informing is much more than searching about contests because the information you could gather is virtually unlimited. Search engines are an easy way to benefit an individual with knowledge to their own satisfaction.
The Sahara Memorial Seen From Space
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25643103
Friedman's ninth flattener, "In-Forming," focuses primarily on how search engines are a critical component for flattening the world, for they allow individuals to discover nearly any information in the world, as long as they have access to the internet. This article is a prime example of what Friedman is trying to convey to the reader because it shows how one of Google's programs, Google Earth, can provide such a powerful insight to the world. The article mentions how people from around the world have been noticing a monument in the Sahara Desert. This monument was made to honor the people who died in a fatal plane crash that occurred there. These people that were noticing the monument were not even near the actual monument. They were using Google Earth and found it in the middle of the Sahara on their computer screen. For no price, anyone can view any location on the planet. This is extraordinary when looking at how large the entire planet is. Friedman discusses how Google can allow anyone to access any information on the internet, and this article builds upon that by demonstrating how far these engines have developed: anyone can now view any physical location on Earth just by simply downloading a free program.
The Technology Aiming to Help Refugees
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25351763
In an article from BBC News, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the Ikea Foundation; the Refugees United; and the Praekelt Foundation, based in South Africa aim to help refugees in Africa by providing them with shelter, services, lost family members, and global recognition. At first, the UNHCR and the Ikea Foundation have fabricated solar powered shelters that have a life of three years. In the future, both of these organizations hope to diffuse these shelters across Africa to help as many refugees as they can. In addition, the UNHCR and the Ikea Foundation have partnered with UPS "to create a system to track the delivery of services and non-food items." Oliver Delarue, the leader of the UNHCR, states, "we are tracking services through mobile devices so whenever we give something to a refugee and wherever we deliver a service to refugees, the system will know exactly what has taken place." Furthermore, Refugees United has been reuniting refugees with their family members. Refugees United has been using SMS to ascertain the location of a certain refugee's family member. Likewise, the Praekelt Foundation created a Vumi, "[a] test based subject of Wikipedia Zero," to propagate the word of helping refugees in Africa. This article correlates with Friedman's ninth flattener, in-forming. In-forming is a way of allowing people to have access to limitless amounts of information at any point in time. Creating a wiki, in this case a Vumi, is the most palpable way of in-forming about a subject matter. The Praekelt Foundation, made of ordinary people, posted this wiki to raise the awareness of the disadvantaged refugees in Africa. This allowed the majority of the people around the globe to have access to this information. Next, by utilizing UPS, each of these companies can monitor the efficiency of the services sent to the impoverished refugees in Africa. This allows these non-profit organizations to improve upon the techniques of their services. Finally, by concocting a "family tracing platform," refugees can learn the knowledge of where their separated family members are located, so they can reunite and stay together. Through a database, all the information that is entered into the system will never leave the system, which allows the database to constantly grow with information, so refugees can have a much higher chance of finding their family members. To sum up, these four charitable organizations offer a prodigious amount of information to facilitate the lives of refugees in Africa, and to publicly "in-form" people around the globe.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/webwise/2012/03/make-the-most-of-search-engines.shtml
ReplyDeleteThis article informs the readers how to use search engines, like Google and Bing, more effectively so the readers get the best results. Information can be searched by defining a category such as if it’s an image or news; and even those can be further described to get more specific results. Google and Bing flatten our world by granting us access to millions of articles, photos, and videos whenever we want or need. They also allow us to look anything up at any time. Whenever we want to research or get answers to something, we are able to look it up using the search engines that are able to provide very specific results. Friedman states all of this in the book too.