Web Scraping with Python

Let me preface this by saying that I know literally nothing about Python, other than it is a scripting language. After I attended the SOCIS presentation, I was still confused, but really impressed. I learned that web scraping is a method of automated analyzing of statistics from web pages to gather information, as well as an easier way to view a lot of information from a web site in a consolidated form in the command window. Using Python scripting, Zach showed us that he used BeautifulSoup4 and Grab to search through the HTML files of the web sites that he wanted to scrape.

The World is Flat…Or is it?

Watch The World is Flat 3.0 here at MIT’s OpenCourseWave website

I’ll be honest, before watching this video, I barely had any clue as to what globalization is. After the video, however, I feel that I have a slightly better idea. I’ll be writing this review/critique in stages as to how the video is presented.

The Path to Globalization 3.0

Mr. Friedman begins his presentation with a discussion on the past eras of globalization, beginning from 1492 (when Columbus sailed the ocean blue), and running through to the present times. There is not much to analyze here, because Friedman’s words are based on history.

The Great Flattener: The PC

This is where I start to disagree with Mr. Friedman. He describes the PC as being the first flattener where individuals are able to create content in a digital form, and that embraces individuality. I agree with him on this standpoint, but in my opinion the first great flattener is intercontinental communication, the telephone. Considering an economic standpoint, the telephone was the first major invention that allowed entrepreneurs to create, discuss, and sell services and items over the phone. Granted that these would have been physical items, but it was a true first venture into the world of the individual. This allowed for the creation of call centers and various over-the-phone services, such as maintenance tutorials and lewd services, giving a brand new name to call girls.

The Great Flattener 2: Flatten Harder: NetScape

Friedman describes the NetScape browser as the tool to bring the internet to life and brought it out of university and company computer rooms. I agree with Friedman completely. The internet, even in it’s earliest forms, as a concept, is the great equalizer and the greatest form of individuality ever created. There is no race on the internet, there is no gender. Everyone on the internet is simply a few network addresses. And those network addresses could communicate to almost anywhere in the world from almost anywhere in the world. The internet finally allowed work to flow and projects to be created and maintained by a group of small programmers typing away in their pajamas all day.

The Great Flattener 3: Army of End Users: Unity of TCP/IP

This is the big one. Previously, computers could generally only connect with computers running on the same system. There is nothing to argue here. A completely unified network of computers became this “next big thing” that is still the big thing in the world, and it only continues to grow. Unified computers finally bring everyone in the world on a level playing field.

The Great Flattener 4: The Reboot: The Horizontal Value Chain

 I’m not going to lie, this is where I got a little lost. It might be because I procrastinated and I’m tired, or it might be that Mr. Friedman got a little off-topic in his speech, but what I see as being the fourth flattener is a world where individuals and corporations are on a level playing field. Methods of communication have changed a lot, and now it is incredibly easy to put yourself on the same ball field as a large corporation. The only problem with this is that Mr. Friedman spoke these words in 2007, so he could not have foreseen the current attempts by corporations to squash the free speech of the internet and make everyone’s lives more difficult in our digital world.

In Conclusion

Overall I agree wish most of Mr. Friedman’s points, although his speech was somewhat difficult to follow. Eventually he goes on to advertise his book after The World is Flat 3.0 about going green, and this is something that is even more important in today’s world.