The World Is Flat: Flatteners 9 & 10 questions

1. Searching on the Internet is a "flattener" because of the diversity of searches going on, and in many different languages. People have never before been able to find so much information about so many other people.

2. "In-forming" is the individual's personal analog to uploading, outsourcing, insourcing, supply-chaining, and off-shoring. In-forming is the ability to build and deploy your own personal supply chain, self-collaborate, search for knowledge, and to seek like-minded people and communities.

3. The impact of super searches on personal privacy is the amount of information available about a person just by searching for them. If you enter a phone number in Google, the persons' address comes up. Newspapers articles come up that contain the name you searched for.

4. "Steroids" refers to certain new technologies. They are amplifying and turbocharing all the other flatteners.

5.
--Instant messaging and file sharing: computer users can share songs, videos, and other kinds of files with one another online. Napster was the most popular peer-to-peer network, which allowed people to share songs stored on their computer. Napster was shut down by a court order because of copyright violations. Napster was popular because it gave people the ability to download music for free.
--Making phone calls over the Internet: VoIP (voice-over Internet protocol) allows you to make phone calls over the Internet by turning voices into data packets that are sent down Internet networks and converted back into voices on the other end. It will make every business and personal phone call to anywhere in the world as cheap as a local call. You will have a buddy list of people and you just double-click on a name and the call will go through. When someone calls you, the caller's picture will come up on the screen.
--Videoconferencing: Each party to the videoconference sits at a table facing a wall of TV screens. Cameras are pointed at the people in the room. The TV screen displays the people at the other site, which could be anywhere in the world. This creates the effect of everyone sitting around a single conference table. Videoconferencing will eventually make remote development, outsourcing, and offshoring easier and more efficient.
--Advances in computer graphics (especially in computer games): Enhances video collaboration and computing by offering sharper images and more ways to illustrate and manipulate those images on a screen. Video games have realistic images and great sound. They are interactive and collaborative, which is a good launch pad for thinking about how people should best interact with will all kinds of computer applications as well as each other in the future.

Current Event 9

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2587624
By Randolph E. Schmid
Associated Press
October 19, 2006

Researchers from the United States and England developed a cloak of invisibility that could hide a copper cylinder. The researchers first designed a cloak that prevents microwaves from detecting objects. The cloak used special materials to deflect radar, light, or other waves around an object. The first cloak was two-dimensional and did cast a small shadow. The next step is to make it three-dimensional and eliminate shadows. The cloak is made of metamaterials, which are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon, or fiber composite.

Those involved were researchers from Duke University. The cloak was designed by David Schurig, a research associate in Duke's electrical and computer engineering department. The research was supported by the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program and the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Right now, this does not affect anyone personally, but the research paves the path for an improved version of the cloak that could hide people and objects from visible light.

If the cloak is improved so it can be used for people and objects, this will raise the issue of whether or not it is ethical to make such things invisible. If it is accessible to the public, someone could use it to hide things like weapons, or to sneak in a place they aren't supposed to go into.

The impact to society is that if this cloak is improved so that it emits no reflections or shadows and truly makes something appear invisible, then you may never know who or what around you is actually there but you just can't see it.

This is a good thing if it stays in the hands of the "right" people. If it is released to the public it could potentially be dangerous. I could see it causing more harm than good. People robbing places, entering secure buildings or boarding airplanes, bringing weapons into government buildings or airports, etc. It should only be used by an agency such as the CIA.

Current Event 8

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15309705/
By Robert MacMillan
Reuters
October 17, 2006

A study conducted by researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California found that one in eight U.S. adults finds it hard to stay away from the Internet several days at a time. A nationwide telephone survey was conducted in 2004 with 2,581 people responding. Some statistics from the survey: 68.9 percent were regular Internet users, 13.7 percent found it hard to stay offline for several days at a time, 12.4 percent stayed online longer than intended, over 12 percent saw a need to cut back on their Internet use, 8.7 percent tried to conceal Internet use from others, 8.2 percent uses the Internet to escape problems or a bad mood, and 5.9 percent feel their relationships suffer because of excessive Internet use. About 5 to 10 percent of the population will experience Internet addiction. Signs of Internet addiction include a disregard for health or appearance, sleep deprivation and decreased physical activity and social interaction with others, dry eyes, carpal tunnel syndrome, and repetitive motion injuries of hands and fingers.

This involved the researchers from Stanford and the people they surveyed.

This affects people who may see the results of the survey and decide to alter their Internet-using habits.

The ethical issue addressed is Internet addiction. This article shows that many people are addicted to the Internet.
The impact to society is that it may make people realize how much they use the Internet on a daily basis. If they think about not using the Internet as much, they could see a positive impact in their daily lives.

Internet addiction is not a good thing. People who are addicted to the Internet lose contact with the "real" world and isolate themselves from people. This article is good because it puts Internet addiction in perspective.

Analysis of Ethics in Film - Sneakers

The movie "Sneakers" is about a group of men, led by Martin Bishop (Robert Redford), who are hired by companies to test the company's security system. The beginning of the movie portrayed them successfully breaking into a bank so the bank would know where it needed to be more secure. Two government officials approached Bishop and wanted him and his team to steal a black box from a mathematician. The box was actually a device that could decrypt any program that was encrypted. Bishop and his team successfully steal the box, and when Bishop takes the box to the government officials, he is told by one of the men from his team that the mathematician is dead, which causes them to realize the government officials are not really government officials after all, and want the box to use for harm instead of good. Bishop runs and the guys give chase. The two "government officials" turned out to be working for Bishop's childhood friend, whom Bishop believed died in prison. Bishop and his team then try to get the box back...

The ethical issue surrounding this movie is encryption, and whether or not such a device should be used to decrypt data that is not supposed to be seen by just anyone. When the team got the black box, they were able to access a system that would allow them to shut of the power of the entire country, and do other things they shouldn't have been able to do. Systems like these should be secure, but this movie shows that if someone is able to break the encryption code, then that person has the power to access what is on the system and to do whatever they want with the decryption code.

I do not think this movie realistically portrays ethical issues because by using the box, they were able to crack the code of any encryption scheme. In reality, I don't believe there would be one set of code that could crack EVERY encryption scheme. Each system will be encrypted differently, therefore it would be impossible (I think) to have one decoder for every set of code.

This movie may make people think that someone who does not work for the "good guys" would be able to get ahold of such a device and have control over things they should not.

In this movie, the law enforcement officials were actually ex-law enforcement officials. Some of these ex-law enforcement officials were pretending to be law enforcement officials, so they would have been compromised if anyone (like real law enforcement officials) found out who they really were.

Current Event 7

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/09/chinese_crackers_attack_us/
October 9, 2006
By John Leyden

Chinese hackers have began an attack against the US Department of Commerce. The computer crackers are located mainly in China's Guangdong province. They are extracting sensitive information from targets such as the Commerce Department's technology export office. US government officials believe the Chinese government is supporting the attacks. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has had to overhaul its computer systems and security defenses. The information on the department's systems includes sensitive commercial and economic data on US exporters, and data involving law enforcement records.

This affects anyone who has records in the Department of Commerce.

The ethical issue addressed is hacking. It is unethical for China to access sensitive data by hacking into our government's system.

The impact to society is if China can get into the Commerce's system, then themselves and other countries may be able to get into other systems and see data they shouldn't be allowed to see. Anyone's information that is contained in a government database may not be safe.

This is a very bad thing because other countries should not have access to the data in the Commerce's system. If another country gets a hold of certain data, they could use that data against us.

The World is Flat: Flatteners 7 & 8 questions

1. Wal-Mart is the world's biggest retailer. No company has been as efficient as Wal-Mart at improving its supply chain. Wal-Mart built an inventory and supply chain management system that changed the face of business. By investing early and heavily in cutting-edge technology to identify and track sales of individual items, Wal-Mart made its IT infrastructure a key competitive advantage that has been studied and copied around the world.

2. In the Wal-Mart distribution centers, employees drive special minilift trucks with headphones on. A computer tracks how many pallets each employee is plucking every hour to put onto trucks for different stores, and a computerized voice tells each of them whether they are ahead of schedule or behind schedule. They have a large-scale satellite system linking all the stores to company headquarters, giving Wal-Mart's central computer system real-time inventory data. Wal-Mart also uses RFIDs. Wal-Mart reached out to the Hispanic population by offering them payroll check cashing, money orders, money transfers, and bill payment services.

3. The store in Japan has put in wide aisles, numerous household goods, and huge signs displaying the lowest prices in each category. The store also uses the Wal-Mart supply-chain computer system so that store managers can quickly adjust stock. Wal-Mart has made the store realize that they do not sell cheap products for low prices, but instead they sell quality products at low prices.

4. "Insourcing" means that the small companies can act like big companies. They small companies could see a many places where they could sell their goods, manufacture their goods, or buy their raw materials in a more efficient way.

5. If you are a small business or individual working at home, you can plug into UPS and have it become your global supply-chain manager. Big corporations can get their packages delivered or goods repaired quickly anywhere in the world by using UPS. UPS is helping to level customs barriers and harmonize trade by getting more people to adopt the same rules and labels and tracking systems for transporting goods.

The World is Flat: Flatteners 5 & 6 questions

1. India was very lucky because they would not have been able to afford to pay for bandwidth to connect India with America, so the American shareholders paid for it. America had found out from the ITT's (Indian Institutes of Technology) how much more knowledgeable the Indians were because many came to America after graduating from an ITT. India benefited from the dot-com bust because the number of American companies that wanted to use the fiber-optic cable to outsource work to India greatly increased. India had the right number of people to get a job done in the fastest amount of time. Y2K also helped India because it gave India the ability to collaborate with Western companies through the fiber-optic networks.

2. China's joining the World Trade Organization gave the WTO a huge boost in offshoring. Companies moved their production to China, where China could employee numerous workers for low wages. By joining the WTO, China was able to do business with other countries, because under WTO rules they had to treat non-Chinese citizens or firms as if they were Chinese in terms of their economic rights and obligations under Chinese law. Foreign companies were now able sell anything anywhere in China, which they were previously not able to do before China joined the WTO.

3. China has not had as big of an impact on outsourcing as it has offshoring. When a company moves one of its factories that is operating in America, for example, to China, that is offshoring. By having a factory in China, an American company can save money and time because the Chinese can manufacture products faster and can be paid a lot less than someone would have to be paid to make the same product in America. Many countries are moving their factories to China for this reason.

Analysis of Ethics in Film - The Net

The movie "The Net" stars Sandra Bullock as a computer analyst named Angela Bennett who has practically no life outside of computers. A friend sends her a computer program on a disk that contains a glitch for her to debug. She sees a Pi symbol in the corner of the screen, and when she presses keys and clicks on it, it takes her into a system that she shouldn't have access to. She goes on vacation to Mexico where she meets a man named Jack Devlin. He gains her trust, then has her purse stolen so he can get the disk. Once she realized he is a "bad guy" she gets the disk and runs away from him. When she tries to check into her hotel, the computer says that she checked out. When she gets home, she finds that her house is for sale and everything in the house is gone. She also has a new identity--her name is now Ruth Marx, and Marx has a criminal record so she is wanted by the police.

The ethical issues surrounding this film is personal privacy. The "bad guys" were able to find out everything about Angela Bennett--what kind of drink she liked, what cigarettes she used to smoke, what movies she liked, etc. They were able to use this information to completely erase her identity, so their was no proof that she was actually Angela Bennett and not Ruth Marx. They were also able to change the medical records of her friend so they gave him the wrong medication, which led to his death. They also killed her friend that sent her the program, and a man she was supposed to meet who knew about the Pi symbol.

When you consider how much information is available about people on the Internet (especially with sites such as MySpace and Facebook), it is very easy for someone to find out whatever they want to know about you. So, I think that aspect of the movie does realistically portray ethical issues, because in the movie they were able to find out everything about Angela. When it comes to erasing someone's identity, I do not think the movie realistically portrayed that issue. I do not think in real life that someone would be able to take that information about a person and completely erase and change their identity without someone still knowing who the person is.

This film may make the public more aware of how much information someone could find out about you, if you make it available to them. It may also make people aware of identity theft and that your identity could be stolen if you make enough information available.

The police in this film were just doing their job, and did not know what was happening to Angela. When they ran her name (her "new" name, Ruth Marx) through the computer system, and it showed all of her criminal records, they had no choice but to believe what it said and to try to arrest her. If she told them what was happening to her, they were not likely to believe her because it would sound off the wall and she wouldn't be able to prove it. I think in real life the police (especially the local police, which is what this film had) would act the same way the police did in this film. They would have no reason to suspect that her identity had been erased and changed based on the information they had.

Current Event 6

http://news.com.com/Screeching+mobiles+that+give+thieves+ear+bashings/2100-1039_3-6121684.html
October 2, 2006
By Reuters

Remote XT has created a product of the same name that will cause a mobile phone to emit a piercing electronic sound if stolen. It will also block access to certain data stored on the phone. The product is only avaiable on smart handsets (phones which integrate applications such as Internet access and/or GPS navigation software). When the phone is stolen, a signal is sent to the phone and all of the phone's data (such as contact numbers, images, e-mails, etc.) is wiped out (the software backs up the data) and it emits an ear-piercing sound.

This product is aimed towards business users who hold confidential data on their phones, such as e-mails. It will also affect thiefs because they may be in for a shock if they steal a phone and try to use it, and have a screaching sound in their ear.

One ethical issue this raises is where does the software keep the backed-up data that it wipes from the phone? If it keeps it backed up on the phone, if a theif wanted the data on the phone bad enough, they could take it to someone and get them to restore the data. If the backed-up data is kept somewhere else, will the company make sure the data gets erased once it is restored?

The impact to society is that people who have important information stored on their phone will not have to worry about someone seeing it if their phone gets stolen. It may also cut back on the number of phone thefts, if thieves know that they will not be able to use or get any information from the phone.

This is a good thing because it helps to cut down on phone theft and data on someone's phone would be protected if it did get stolen.