“Time Wounds All Heals”

           

It seems like no matter how fast we run, as soon as we think we are caught up, the finish line jumps ahead again.  The ever present passage of time reminds us that the innovation of yesterday has become the old news of today.  Just as realization and acceptance began to sink in that the world was indeed flat, the Triple Convergence happened.

            The first convergence came from this awareness of a new and equal playing field.  As the idea spread and took root throughout the world, it was only a matter of time before connections were made.  In the book, Paul Romer gave a perfect example of how this happened.  “There are goods that are complementary - whereby good A is a lot more valuable if you also have good B.  As soon as you get more of one, you got more of the other, and as soon as you got a better quality of one and a better quality of the other, your productivity improved.”  So in other words, change breeds more change.  There is no room for anything stagnant in this new flat world.

            Second, came horizontalization.  This was essentially a whole new way to collaborate.  Rather than a top-down approach, success stories now came from those willing to fraternize with the competition so to speak.  Now, instead of asking who was in control of which system, the question became what is the outcome I want to produce, and how can I get the best end result?  The entire way of thinking had to be changed in order for this to take place, and that of course, takes a great amount of a very precious commodity, time.

            Third, came the unwashed masses.  Literally billions of people now had access to compete in a new and unseen way.  These three things, referred to as the triple convergence, shook the technological world.  Never had it been so incredibly flat.  Ideas and breakthroughs were now free to come from anywhere on this planet!

            An example of this comes in the form of the story regarding India and Indiana.  An Indian consulting firm won the bid to revamp the computer systems that processed unemployment claims in the state of Indiana.  “Indiana was outsourcing the very department that would cushion the people of Indiana from the effects of outsourcing.”  Could anything really be more ironic than this?!  If you look at it from a different perspective, though, it makes complete sense.  This firm was proposing to get the job done at an incredible savings to the other competition.  Just imagine the possibilities, the improvements that could have been made with 8.1 million dollars!  But in a seemingly typical knee jerk fashion, the contract was terminated because of the overwhelming mockery it seemed to make of the entire system in general.  Wasn’t what was happening the EXACT reason that there were so many unemployment claims to begin with??  Still, I feel that the comprehensive effect would have been positive, and should have been handled much differently.  These types of issues ultimately seem to turn into a he-said she said argument when trying to decide who played the role of victim.  Can we really fault either side for wanting employment?

            As the push to collaborate gets more intense, a new question comes into view.  Who owns what?  When we are almost forced into cooperation with those in direct competition, who decides what portions belong to whom?  Intellectual property is the ideas and innovations that are created and shared through this amazing flat world.  How then, does one stop others from using their intellectual property to copy and distribute it?  The answer comes in a system of governance through patents and licensing options.  These allow creators to get the benefits of their ideas while still being able and open to share them with others.

            What a scary and changing world we live in!  All that seems made whole, inevitably gets broken again.