The Kev Blog

A direct result of the ‘flattened world’, it shouldn’t be news to you that more and more people are working independent of classic offices and work environments. So many people (and there could/should be more) are working from home, starting new ventures, or simply freelancing because of what the flat world has to offer; opportunity to anyone with a laptop and internet connection.

While the tradition workplace may be changing, there is still a need/longing for collaboration, teamwork, and working in an environment filled with creative and intelligent people. So what do you do if you want to work on your own projects, but still be surrounded by others ?

You might head off to your nearest Starbucks, or public library. OR, you might go to Jelly. (By the way, Jelly is also perfect for employee, owners and executives who need to get out of the office for the day for a change of scenery)

WTF is Jelly?!!?

“Jelly is casual coworking. We invite people to work from our home for the day. We provide chairs and sofas, wireless internet, and interesting people to talk to, collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of.

You bring a laptop (or whatever you need to get work done) and a friendly disposition.”

(stolen from the Jelly site)

Jelly started in New York, but the idea was so appealing it quickly spread across the country. No Jelly in Toronto, though. (I’d invite everyone over, but my parents’ basement may not be the the best environment)

The beauty of Jelly comes from the diversity of the people working there:

“We see a lot of designers, developers, and internet types, but we’ve also had musicians, cooks, sound designers, tea sommeliers, product designers, photographers, writers, and more.”

That’s friggin’ sweet - Tom Peters always talks about companies with finance departments filled with musicians, designers and flat out freaks. This sounds pretty close (without having to deal with Klingon at your next budget meeting - not that there’s anything wrong with Klingon).

Check out the vid from Jelly:

What is Jelly? from Amit Gupta on Vimeo.

There was some buzz in the startup community about a coworking-type place in Toronto called Indoor Playground, which would have been a perfect venue for something like this, but when I talked to the people over there, it seemed like it wasn’t working out because of a property/building issue. (If anyone can correct or clarify here, would be much appreciated).

So, if anyone in the Toronto/GTA area is interested, let’s get something set up!

For more info, check out Jelly in Wired, and at Nevblog.com.

So what exactly does a ‘flat world’ mean? Well, it means that the “global competitive playing field is being leveled” says Thomas Friedman.

Still confused?

Think of it this way:

“It is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more other people on different kinds of work from more different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing that at any previous time in the history of the world.”

It means that MBA students in North America can work on projects with MBA students in China, and then have that work edited by MBA students in India.

It means that someone with a laptop in an internet Cafe in Nigeria can start a business using Yahoo search engines and UPS logistics to ship products he has manufactured in China directly to the buyer who ordered the goods online, the whole time never touching his own products.

It means that anyone with a laptop can connect to absolutely anyone else with a laptop, and collaborate on any project, in almost any country, and change, create and develop anything they have the imagination to come up with.

It means a site like MySpace, if considered its own country, would be the 8th largest in the world, and that 1 in 8 couples married in 2008 will have met over the Internet.

It means that a company can open up its management, product development, and marketing tools to the world, share information that was once considered ‘for executives’ eyes only’, and see customers participate in company processes that used to be reserved for the boardroom.

It means that 6 billion people have a shot at participating in the new global economy.

Well….almost.

Friedman is quick to admit that not all the world is flat…at least not yet. There are still close to 3 billion people in rural parts of China, India, South America, Africa, and even Europe and North America who don’t have access to the flat world. However, that is changing as well. In efforts to maximize the global ‘talent pool’, individuals and organizations already in the flat world are now using globalization and collaboration to solve these problems.

Take Jeremy Hockenstein, for example. A former McKinsey employee, Hockenstein left to start a not-for-profit data entry firm that outsources work to Cambodia of all places; not the best of economies or work environments. So what did he and his colleagues decide to do? Bridge the gap between the flat world and the un-flat world. They opened “Digital Divide Data” and trained people in Cambodia to type information into computers. They then went to India to find data-entry organizations who needed text inputted into computers in digital form to be stored in databases. They also returned home to America to find work there. In fact, Harvard gave Digital Divide Data its first big contract, archiving old copies of its school newspaper. So, in a nutshell, two Americans trained people in Cambodia to type and use the Internet so that Indian companies and Harvard University could outsource data-entry work. The world is flat.

While we’ve all heard the arguments against globalization, it is critically important to see the advantages of living in a truly flat world. When projects like this can happen seamlessly, and its just as easy to communicate with someone in the next city as it is the opposite side of the world, the possibilities are endless. It will surely be exciting to see where the flat world takes us, and how it will shape education, governments, health care, organizations, and individuals.

The World is Flat should absolutely be a required reading for all business and economics students (at the very minimum), not to mention professors and faculty.

If our generation will be living in a flat world, should we not be educating for it?

With all the tools and technology out there, there is no reason why business and economics students are not working on research papers, assignments, and projects right alongside students in India and China.

There is no doubt that the concept of a ‘flat world’ is one that every future employee, business leader, politician, entrepreneur, student (and the list goes on), must understand.

The fact that globalization is happening is a non-issue. What does matter is the how the human race pushes globalization along. Friedman’s The World is Flat is an excellent starting point, but just like in the flat world, its what we do with all this shared knowledge and collaboration that counts.

Today marks the beginning of One Laptop Per Child (founded by Nicholas Negroponte) offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be able to purchase two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home. It is a great project, and for $399 seriously worth considering. Check it out at www.laptop.org

From the One Laptop Per Child site:

Mission:
Most of the nearly two–billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade.

The individual and societal consequences of this chronic global crisis are profound. Children are consigned to poverty and isolation—just like their parents—never knowing what the light of learning could mean in their lives. At the same time, their governments struggle to compete in a rapidly evolving, global information economy, hobbled by a vast and increasingly urban underclass that cannot support itself, much less contribute to the commonweal, because it lacks the tools to do so.

This is just one step towards a flatter world. Imagine if William Kamkwamba, who I posted about here last week, had access to a computer. He built a windmill from a book he found in a Malawi library called “Using Energy”. The One Laptop Per Child project will allow that many more individuals to step onto the global playing field.

Bill Gates said this in The World is Flat:

“30 years ago, if you had a choice between being born a genius on the outskirts of Bombay or Shanghai or being born an average person in Poughkeepsie, you would take Poughkeepsie, because your chances of thriving and living a decent life there, even with average talent, were much greater. But as the world has gone flat, and so many people can plug and play from anywhere, natural talent has started to trump geography.”

So what exactly does a ‘flat world’ mean? Well, it means that the “global competitive playing field is being leveled” says Thomas Friedman.

Still confused?

Think of it this way:

“It is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more other people on different kinds of work from more different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing that at any previous time in the history of the world.”

It means that MBA students in North America can work on projects with MBA students in China, and then have that work edited by MBA students in India. It means that someone with a laptop in an internet Cafe in Nigeria can start a business using Yahoo search engines and UPS logistics to ship products he has manufactured in China directly to the buyer who ordered the goods online, the whole time never touching his own products. It means that anyone with a laptop can connect to absolutely anyone else with a laptop, and collaborate on any project, in almost any country, and change, create and develop anything they have the imagination to come up with. It means a site like MySpace, if considered its own country, would be the 8th largest in the world, and that 1 in 8 couples married in 2008 will have met over the Internet.
It means that a company can open up its management, product development, and marketing tools to the world, share information that was once considered ‘for executives’ eyes only’, and see customers participate in company processes that used to be reserved for the boardroom. It means that 6 billion people have a shot at participating in the new global economy.

Well….almost.

Friedman is quick to admit that not all the world is flat…at least not yet. There are still close to 3 billion people in rural parts of China, India, South America, Africa, and even Europe and North America who don’t have access to the flat world. However, that is changing as well. In efforts to maximize the global ‘talent pool’, individuals and organizations already in the flat world are now using globalization and collaboration to solve these problems. Take Jeremy Hockenstein, for example. A former McKinsey employee, Hockenstein left to start a not-for-profit data entry firm that outsources work to Cambodia of all places; not the best of economies or work environments. So what did he and his colleagues decide to do? Bridge the gap between the flat world and the un-flat world. They opened “Digital Divide Data” and trained people in Cambodia to type information into computers. They then went to India to find data-entry organizations who needed text inputted into computers in digital form to be stored in databases. They also returned home to America to find work there. In fact, Harvard gave Digital Divide Data its first big contract, archiving old copies of its school newspaper. So, in a nutshell, two Americans trained people in Cambodia to type and use the Internet so that Indian companies and Harvard University could outsource data-entry work. The world is flat.

While we’ve all heard the arguments against globalization, it is critically important to see the advantages of living in a truly flat world. When projects like this can happen seamlessly, and its just as easy to communicate with someone in the next city as it is the opposite side of the world, the possibilities are endless. It will surely be exciting to see where the flat world takes us, and how it will shape education, governments, health care, organizations, and individuals. I would go as far to say that The World is Flat should be a required reading for all business and economics students, not to mention professors and faculty. If our generation will be living in a flat world, should we not be educating for it? With all the tools and technology out there, there is no reason why business and economics students are not be working on papers and projects right alongside students in India and China.

There is no doubt that the concept of a ‘flat world’ is one that every future employee, business leader, politician, entrepreneur, student (and the list goes on), must understand. The fact that globalization is happening is a non-issue. What does matter is the how the human race pushes globalization along. Friedman’s The World is Flat is an excellent starting point, but just like in the flat world, its what we do with all this shared knowledge and collaboration that counts.