Skype and Globalization

Skype will now have a presence in the living room


If this isn't a world flattening force then I don't know what is. For those of you who haven't read Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat", you should. Friedman, an innovator of globalization, argues that certain forces, 10 to be particular, are flattening the world, or making it more accessible. These forces are

1)The Collapse of the Berlin Wall
2) Netscape
3) Workflow Software
4) Open Sources
5) Outsourcing
6) Offshoring
7) Supply-chainging
8) Insourcing
9) In-forming
10) "The Steroids" (cellphones, iPods, IMing, Facebook, etc)



I'm guessing Skype would fall into the category of a steroid, but this may even flatten a flattener. I'll make sense in a bit.

My politics professor Steven David described studying abroad in Israel for many months, and only making one very limited , very complex, and very expensive phone call home. He then said his daughters could now Skype him whenever they wanted to from across the world while they studied abroad. While Skype is indeed an incredible software, and it has started to pick up the pace in popularity, it hasn't reached Facebook status, even though the majority of people would rather be able to see and talk to their loved ones and not just read about their new status updates. When I first heard of Skype, it was through friends in a summer program in Oxford. It was popular because it allowed you to speak with people like with a phone from other countries for free. With the prominence of webcams now, it's now primarily used for video chatting.

However, as this New York Times article announces, Panasonic and LG Electronics are initiating partnerships with Skype. This means, Skype will now be able to use the internet to directly connect through television sets. I hope the analogy is okay, but like nuclear proliferation, technology can spread vertically and horizontally, meaning more advanced technology can be available to the technological elite or basic technology will be available and accessible to more people. This horizontality is what makes this such a powerful flattener. More and more people will have access to the wonderful technology of Skype, increasing our interconnectedness through global media. Thirty years ago, this was stuff out of Sci-fi novels. I mean, everyone has a TV, so could it be possible that the TV will one day replace the telephone? Will they combine into one super-device? Some globalizing food for thought.