Module 1 Readings

Reaction the first two chapters of Future of Work by Thomas W. Malone

The Future of Work by Thomas W. Malone presents a clear model or lens for viewing the evolution of human organization. He describes human organization as evolving from our hunter-gatherer ancesters that organized in small bands to farming communities ruled centrally by kings. He then explains that one of the main reasons humans were able to evolve this way is due to advancements in communication - first written communication, then the printing press. With centralization, we gained benefits such as economies of scale and military protection. However, individual freedoms, such as autonomy, had to be sacrificed. In many instances bands were taken over and members were forced to become slaves. However, continued developments in communication such as the printing press helped societies decentralize and gain some of these lost freedoms back. Yet, even in democratic societies, businesses had become highly centralized and individual workers didn't (and still don't in many companies) have much say or freedom. Electronic communication, though, presents many opportunities for continued decentralization and gaining freedom back.

Decentralization in business is a highly appealing idea for me partly because as a project manager I see it as an effective way to coordinate and partly because I spent the first few years of my professional life miserable and taking orders in a cubicle. That lifestyle made me very anxious and unhappy - even when working on projects I liked - and I don't want this experience to continue to be a part of our culture. I agree with Malone when he writes, "When people are making their own decisions, for instance, father than just following orders, they often work harder and show more dedication and more creativity." (Malone 8)

When reading the Future of Work, there were a couple of ideas that I previously took for granted, that I began to look at a bit differently. For instance, it really struck me about how different a concept it was for a country to run itself without a king. The article initially has the reader look at the concept from the perspective of a Spanish shopkeeper. I think by looking at the concept from the perspective of an individual was the reason the concept had such an impact for me. Another point that really hit home was the impact written communication and then the printing press had on society. Things that today we take for granted were revolutionary in the way that societies could organize.

One concept I did not understand from Malone's writing was that of an internal labor market. If anyone can help clarify what this is, that would be greatly helpful to me.

Reaction to Videos

Freedom of information available on the internet (such as with the Khan Academy and Academic Earth) makes me believe that certain disciplines will no longer need college degrees or that we are seriously being overcharged for them. With over 200,000 dollars spent on three degrees I often wonder if I really needed them to be what I am professionally. After all, I am an IT project manager, and first information technology education is readily available on the internet - in fact, I am mostly self taught in that arena and I grew to be a project manager through work experience. However, I have an education degree, and I would say that several of the courses I took in education were critical to my succezss - one being an Educational Psychology course. This course taught me how we learn and subsequently allowed me to teach myself technologies such as programming and overall comprehension of how complex web applications and enterprise systems work. Furthermore, sometimes there is no replacement for a professor that responds to your work. Reading is one way of learning, but doing and getting feedback is irreplaceable.

Reaction to Google+, Twitter, and Foursquare

This is the first time I have worked with Google+ and my first impression was that the application requires too much instruction for how to use the tool rather than having an intuitive interface. I did like the idea of social circles on Google+ however, but I don't like the idea of having another social networking account so similar to one that I already have with Facebook. I read on cnn.com today (here http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/08/23/facebook.privacy.change/index.html?npt=NP1) that Facebook is adding features more like Google+, particularly for privacy, and similar to social circles. It hasn't created social circles in the same way Google+ has, but Facebook's new feature do allow a user to control which friends see what information. Additionally, Facebook has added a function in which a user has to "approve photo tages before they go public". Overall, in my ideal world, I would prefer to have just one social networking account with the combined features of Facebook, Google+, Foursquare and Twitter. I think in order to survive long term, a social networking tool will need to provide all of these features. I'm not sure if these tools hold patents on there unique features though, and patents would prevent one tool from adopting certain features from another. But, just as we would like just one electronic device to do multiple things (i.e. smartphones), I think the public will abandon social networking sites that aren't multifunctional. Who has the time or wants to take the time to check and maintain 5+ accounts?