global village : Java Glossary

global village

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase global village to refer to the way modern transportation and communications were making the world ever more interconnected. We can no longer ignore what happens on the other side of the planet. Everything affects everything else.

Radio, TV and the Internet are bringing news, information and education to even the remotest parts of the world. No matter where you live, you can fully participate in forming the Internet discussion consensus.

However, much of this interconnectedness is distressing:

Insect pests in one part of the world are spreading to the entire world.
Foreign plants displace native species.
Introduced animal species such as zebra mussels, rats, goats or snakes play havoc with fragile ecosystems.
The world is a highly competitive global labour market. Outsourcing has depressed wages in North America and throughout the world. Multinational oligarchies are able to exploit weekly organised labour.
Computer programmers in North America, once highly paid, now compete on almost equal footing with people living in India who have a much lower cost of living.
Countries compete for multinational business with weaker labour and environmental protection laws.
It is unsound to waste precious oil shipping goods around the planet that could just as easily have been created locally.

Learning More

A high school friend, Dr. Heather Hudson, who is a professor at the University of San Francisco has written a book on the effect of telecommunications on the third world.

recommend book⇒From Rural Village to Global Village: Telecommunications for Development in the Information Age

by:

Heather Hudson

978-0-8058-6016-0

paperback

(born: 1947 age: 64)

978-0-8058-5667-5

hardcover

publisher:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

published:

2006-01-27

It is about the social policies surrounding access to telecommunications in rural and third world countries. It discusses the effect of the digital divide between have and have-not.

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