Module 2

This module was about the Flattener number three through number five. Flattener number three was about workflow software and what it is. Flattener number four is about open source software and how it’s important. Flattener is about outsourcing and why it’s so important in today’s society.   

            Work flow software is what helps employees stay on task and keep track of what they need to be doing. It can be very useful so that employers know that their employees are getting their work done and they aren't stealing company time. An example of this would be at my job I work for a small software company called Reading Horizons. We use a work flow software called Pivotal Tracker. It’s very useful because it makes us know exactly what upper management wants and when they want it done by. Usually work flow software is very easy to use and is very beneficial to the company because you can do things like tasks and projects. Before this I imagine that it was really easy for employees that worked in this field it was very easy to steal time from the company.

            Open source software is software that can be freely used by anyone. Usually open source software is made by a lot of people and distributed under licenses that comply with open source. Open source in my opinion is very important because it’s free. Anything that is free now-a-days is very important especially software because usually when a company wants to build a software it takes a lot of hours, people, and can be very costly. With open source software it makes it so that companies don’t have to spend all that money on it. At my work right now I’m actually looking for a good open source time sheet. If I don’t find a good open source one then I’ll have to build it myself and that will cost my company a lot of my hours worked rather than it being free from an open source.

            The definition of outsourcing is to obtain goods or service from an outside or foreign supplier. In the developing world outsourcing is very important because a company can hire someone to come into their office every day and pay them a lot of money, or they can outsource and hire someone that lives in India and pay them close to nothing to do the exact same job. Luckily my work doesn’t out source and we have a full development team in our office. I’m very glad that my work isn’t seeing that the world is flat and outsourcing when they easily could be getting the same product for much cheaper from somewhere else.

            In this module Friedman is still showing us how the world is flattening and just giving us more reasons. With workflow and how it’s keeping employees on task, open source software that is saving companies a lot of money, and outsourcing which is companies hiring people from outside countries to do the same job for much cheaper.