Economies: Network Citizens

In this week’s reading we have come to an understanding that technology was only created to assist us to perform our jobs in today’s world. It’s not a core reason why network today is so important and gained so much attention. However, we can’t live without technology advancement in networking as well. With the help of technology, social networking has become one of the most useful and significant tool for organizations to aid their staff to enable them to work at their best performance. This is reflected towards the growth of investments in technological industries and highly skilled labours in order to gain higher profits. The economy and the labour market are two sectors that are involved with vital changes in the related area.

According to the research, it is shown that knowledge based services significantly out run high tech manufacturing jobs. This indicates that there’s an increase in demand for more highly skilled workers in an area based on the use of their knowledge and information in the industry. This will provide and enable organizations to change to a firm level in order to maximize the benefits of using technology for most beneficial productivity. Also, because the jobs are highly skilled, higher wages are being paid compared to low technology industries. They are being paid higher not because of their personality, but mainly because of the knowledge and skill the person has to operate technology comparing to manual labour. As mentioned previously, due to the changes in technology, particularly from the beginning of information technology, this is the main focus of how the society is making educated and skilled labour more valuable than compared to unskilled labour.

I believe that it is known that knowledge plays an important role in the economy. This trend follows the revision of the leading economic theories and models and after years of research, it has finally been brought to reality. There are still researches going on to determine the foundations of the economic growth. Many organizations are investing in knowledge in order to increase the product varieties, as well as other factors of production to transform them into new products and new processes. This is due to the competition in the market which is very competitive and at a fast moving pace. This explains the key for improving is by using the new growth theories to clarify the details which will generate the long term economic growth.

Also, there’s much speculation that if many of these workers have a certain “skill”, they will have higher expectation towards the organization in many ways. This will usually drive their value up significantly. Money usually is not a factor here. Usually these skill workers have passion for something and they do it for creative and interest purposes. Sometimes these workers are attracted to the working environment because of the organization culture, moral standard, ethics, and etc.

I believe in the near future, the concept of working will have a new definition. It will not be up to organizations to decide whether they want to hire someone, but also what the employees are looking for in an organization and if they can provide the employees with their needs as well. Organizations must give more personal space to their employees; also to understand their personal, social, health needs and etc. Employees these days do not look at the organization status, but more of what the organization can offer them in the long run in terms of benefits and values. This is the best way to attract best employees in the field.

In this emerging information society, computer literacy and able to access to the network equipments have become more important comparing with knowledge based economy. There’s a need for knowledge based to continue to learn the use of information technology on the network. As accessing information over the Internet is much easier and less expensive, it is crucial to make efficient use of the information with required skills. The ability to know how to operate a tool, to select relevant information and disregarding the irrelevant, and interpreting and decoding information. All these can only be done through economic learning or education. Therefore, most organizations invest a big amount of money for the training, implement and put it in practices as you gradually progress and learn. Or before they hire someone, the basic requirement an employee must have is formal education as it is the platform of the knowledge based economy, the ability to apply and analysis theoretical knowledge. Also, when a firm does not have the require funds to learn or obtain a certain technology, they will have joined networks where interactive learning takes place in exchange of information for future innovation.

In order to succeed, firms must look at the national economy as a whole. I believe it is important to know the ways to develop, share and interact effectively with sub-groups and networks. Knowing who in particular as well. The economy is driven by the increasing speed of change and rate of learning. There are many opportunities in the network society to gain access to joint knowledge shared between individuals and firms. The ideas of innovations stimulate many new ideas and new opportunities for the market. Sources can be obtained from manufacturing, marketing of new products, production, development, services and etc. a strong communication model is required for innovation, that means, communication between different sectors such as firms and consumers, plus feedback between manufacturing and development.

Lastly, it has always been my philosophy  that there’s always two sides to everything. The good and bad, the positive and negative. I realized most articles I have read so far are focusing more on the positive side. However, it is important to take note the seriousness of the cons as well. In this article for instance, it came to my attention that the labour market trend is facing a crisis. Due to technological change, skilled workers are listed as favorites globally. Wages between skilled and low skilled workers have a huge difference. Also, because of all these, most firms unconsciously change their perception and their behaviors toward the low skilled and the labour market.

Information Ecology: Cultures and The Nature of Networks

We are living in an information society with the help of digital media which we have created by our very own hands; we have defined it within our very own system.  We rely on the digital media we created to help us work faster, smarter and more efficiently. However, nothing is 100% perfect and many have realized that there lies a very deep problem within. What if people are getting too involved and reliant on the digital world? Is there any solution to that? The answer is yes. Information ecology is a methodology which was created to emphasize on the findings of the development.

There’s a difference between the environment of the virtual world and the actual physical world we are living in. We can feel, touch, sense, and be involved with the objects in the physical world. However, in the media world, it’s only formed by two elements and we call them the nodes and the flow. These two components are invisible, work closely and are interdependent on each other to provide us with information and tools which we use on a daily basis in the cyber world. They grow and feed on each other and as a result, new information will be created from the reaction. Also, nodes and flow behaves like our human brain, they have the ability to evaluate on past information in order to form better information in the future. Without these two elements working together, information will not be delivered and thus you can deem the virtual world as completely useless and worthless.

To make it simple to understand, basically nodes are destinations and flow is the process that is being used to deliver information on the Internet from one place to another across the globe. There are many ways information can be delivered to its destination. Let’s say flow was corrupted or can’t be used due to network issues, nodes will find other alternative flows to reach to the end user. It is impossible that a desired node requested by an end user will not reach to the person unless the problem lies within the end user, not the process. Another example, let’s say nodes are human beings, passengers who want to travel from one place to another and airplanes are like the flow that bring the passengers from one place to their destination anywhere across the globe.

There are four patterns of how nodes and flow works within information ecology.

1.       Interdependency – It is vital for nodes and flow to work closely together in order to survive, their survival means doing their job by serving information to human beings. Each node is connected to another no matter where they are, they are interdependent on each other. Let’s say an airplane is flying from one place to another, however, during the process, there’s a communication interruption between the two initial nodes, therefore, in order to have an alternative option, another node will always  be ready and on standby and is prepared to respond and communicate with the other nodes. Node can be either the father or the mother, same goes to the flow, and the end product which is the information is like their children that are the kind of relationship they have in the virtual world.

2.       Change – Nodes can be influenced and changed by other nodes along the passing process. It’s just like how we human beings can also be changed and influenced by our surroundings, our environment, and people revolved around our life. We can never know where we will end up tomorrow or in 10 years time. Anything can change with a blink of eyes. However, there’s always a purpose, reasons of these changes take place. Each of these elements will have a meaning in our life. Just like nodes, they change accordingly along the way and interdependent on each new nodes they meet in order to adapt to the new environment and new information they have come across with along the way.

3.       Time-boundness - Many have said that time is gold. Today we live in an information age where information is being delivered to us at a rapid speed. We need to keep up to date of happenings, if not, we will be left behind.  Time is an essential factor, a driven factor. Old information can be replaced by new in just minutes. In the cyber world, constant change is taking place from nodes to nodes and that’s something which we are not in control of, anything can happen. It all depends on the priority of the information being delivered and the how important the information is at the moment.

4.       Differentiation – Each node has their very own unique job they have to accomplish and they can only be considered useful and worthy if they have accomplished their job. Usually nodes are like special groups where they are formed together and each of them with their own unique skill and ability to achieve a common goal, which is delivering a particular information to an end user. The funny thing is that in cyber world, nodes work best together if they are highly differentiated from each other, the total opposite of the physical world we are living in today. However, there’s one similarity which is differentiation is the reductive of complexity. This concept works in both worlds. People with different thinking’s and different minds can have more opinions and solutions on a particular matter from different approaches and perceptions.

In conclusion, nodes and flow are “invisible” agents in the cyber world where many people do not know their existence and the importance of their job of enabling us to retrieve on the desired information we require. Both of them can’t live without each other, like the saying goes, most and best things in life come in pairs. They work interdependently on each other. Nodes can be known as destinations, starting points, finishing stops, and rest stops while flow can be known as the tools, ways, methods of carrying these information around, the pathway, the routes.

A Declaration of The Indepedence of Cyberspace

A declaration of the independence of cyberspace, which was written by John Perry Barlow, is a prominent article on the applicability of government on the fast growing of the Internet. It was published online on February 8, 1996 in Davos Switzerland.  Its purpose was in response to the passing of the Telecommunication Act of 1996 in the United States.

The article was written in a unique format with 16 short paragraphs and each of the paragraphs illustrates his unhappiness and rebellious attitude towards the United States government towards the usage of the Internet by outside powers. Barlow thinks that the United States government does not have the right to apply any law regarding the usage of the Internet and so every country in the world does not have that kind of right to do something like that. Barlow believes that the Internet should be a tool which lets the users to create their own relationship with government in order to handle their problems based on the common and logic idea that one should treat others as one would like the same in return in a positive manner and as well one should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated which is in a negative manner.

Barlow seeks to make it crystal clear that the governments that govern the respective nations in this world do not have the right to enforce or nor has it any jurisdiction what so ever in the global social space. The main point is that, jurisdiction of Cyberspace does not fall within its borders as the author points out. Cyberspace as it stands today is free from any form of dictatorships or politically motivated agendas and is not a tool in the game of chess that certain power hungry nations seek to indulge in.  Barlow explains that no government or organisation has ever been approached nor elected by any “leaders” or stakeholders of the global social arena. Barlow would go on to allege that through means of raising conflicting issues and throwing accusations that there is indeed trouble in Cyberspace. The author refutes these baseless accusations and makes a strong stand that its community will resolve problems in Cyberspace and that any form of government intervention is unwarranted, unwanted and not needed.

Moving on, Barlow stresses a very interesting and important point when he raises the topic of matter. The legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context all apply only to matter. In Cyberspace there is no matter, there is no physical environment; there is only a global network of human beings engaging with one another in “free airspace”. In reality, governments through its courts and policing are able to prosecute a physical being but in Cyberspace there is no physical being or environment to juristic and government intervention would lead to this barrier being broken. He stands on his own with visible and invisible audiences who might support or who might be against him.

Furthermore, Cyberspace is free from marginalization and racial discrimination and each and every stakeholder is treated with the same rights and privileges.  A place where freedom of speech is applied and not give people fear or any doubts when they expressing themselves. Most people on cyberspace consider themselves as ordinary human being with no extra identities, which means like they are no politicians or government staff who have the need to protect themselves and portray a good image to the public. An ideal example would be the ability to sign up for electronic mailing account where as in a so called “democracy” certain sectors of society are marginalized and are not able to have a basic education. In Cyberspace this works differently where all is fair and even on a level playing field. In the real world, nations are ranked by economic strength and military power.

Barlow condemns the Telecommunications Reform Acts passed by the United States government as an insult to the Forefathers’ of America and the very own Constitution of the United States of America. Nations around the world are proposing laws and increasing their jurisdiction as well making clam downs on Cyberspace. The very liberty that is present in Cyberspace is at risk but as man fought for their freedom and rights during the hostile periods of colonialization and prevail so will the stakeholders of Cyberspace. Barlow declares that even though governments and nations may have control over their bodies but the minds of humans are able to reproduce at a rate of infinity and these thoughts can conveyed limitlessly throughout the world until a civilization of the Mind of Cyberspace is achieved and created. A more humane and equal society. 

Let's take few counter-factual cases as to what will happen if government intervention does to take place. An ideal example for that would be what is happening in the UK at the moment. Through the use of social media, lotters, thugs, and rioters were able to gather and have coordinated strikes. In Iran, the Green Revolution took place cause of Twitter. In Egypt, people take over the streets to overthrow the government for cutting of the Internet. It is good and bad. Governments can be toppled through the sue of Cyberspace.

Also note, in the age that we live in, there is an immense threat of coordinate of Cyber Warfare. It is for this reason that governments breach their juridiction and try to enforece Cyberspace. CNN has been hacked, British Intelligence, NASA and etc.

To conclude, this article was written in 1996, fast-forward today's events and an article like this would be rubbished and has little effect and impact on today's society. There is a fine line between social liberty and abusing the freedom given.

Network and The Modern Age

Networks exist in any and every field possible, such as social, political, governmental, media, and etc. After reading Manuel Castells’s “Afterword: Why Network Matter?” it is clear to me that networking is a necessary tool in society today. Networking is Power. Power of control, wealth, and or influence which cease to exist in any sole institution, state or large conglomerates. Networking is a global phenomenon which enables us to connect with people from all walks of life.  

The world today revolves around social networking and the internet. This is an undeniable fact in today’s world. Societies, individuals, organisations depend and rely on social network to aid them towards their true cause. Networking is also important today because of the development of technologies of software-based communication which society today relies heavily on. Organisations and individuals could not accomplish goals and tasks without certain required technology hence the most useful and powerful tool for today is the social networking culture such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and others. With further advancement in social networking technologies, solutions to various problems might possibly be solved on a much easier level. Social network also provides us real time updates even on events that are happening in remote places.

Big organisations need international business; companies from all over the world are talking about mergers. This will place them at the top of their industry and to be better than their competitors. With the help of networking, these will be a possibility. Deals can happen more conveniently and with greater easement. Especially if there already exist a stable and good-relationship network among the parties.

Networking is used among governments of different countries in order to make the world a better place when they want to have an agreement, to make the world a better place. Like the UN, international law, alliance among countries and etc. Decision making processes that would be of greater benefit to a large scale of people instead of being limited to a specific region, group, and others.

Activists also find that networking is very crucial in their cause. This is because they need a “tool” to enable them to spread their message. They often discuss their morals, cultures and visions among other activist in their network in hopes that when they succeed it will be a life that the people had wished for.

If the question is why Network Today? Then I’d have to say that networking is the key to great success in any field, whether it is towards a certain goal or to attain anything. It plays a very crucial role in this modern age; it even has the ability to close the gap between generations. It helps to shape our knowledge and the information we retrieve. Hence network is power and power is everything.

As mentioned previously, there are many different societies who use network to become the Alpha One. When one society of that particular network has more power, it can even influence other networks and have a say in it. I have now come to realize that networking is such a powerful tool that it has played such an important role in shaping and moulding my life without me even realizing it has done so then.  As of now, this is my understanding to as why networking matters.