Changing Space – The Shrinking World

Changing Space – The Shrinking World

Time-Space Convergence
Explain how a reduction in the friction of distance results in time-space convergence.
Time-space convergence looks at the relationship between space and time. In particular it looks at the amount of space that can be crossed in a set period of time. With the advancement of faster forms of transportation, notably the jet plane it is now possible to travel much greater distances in a shorter space of time.

Explain how a reduction in the friction of distance results in time-space convergence.

Time-space convergence looks at the relationship between space and time. In particular it looks at the amount of space that can be crossed in a set period of time. With the advancement of faster forms of transportation, notably the jet plane it is now possible to travel much greater distances in a shorter space of time.

Examine the relative changes in the speed and capacity of two types of transport (air, ocean, road, rail, pipeline) responsible for the flow of goods, materials and people.
Air Transport
Advantages
Disadvantages
Air Travel With a population of only 8 million, it has 5 international airports with the newly opened Al Maktoum and 5 different airlines
This large need for air travel is because:
The general benefits of improved air travel include:
Sea Transport
Advantages
Disadvantages
Ted Talk

Air Transport

Advantages

• Fast over long distances
• Planes don’t get stuck in traffic, unlike cars and lorries
• Good for high value perishable goods e.g. flowers, animals
• Can reach landlocked countries

Disadvantages

• Planes cause a lot of pollution (noise, air and visual) – contribute greenhouse effect
• Cost of flying is expensive, especially as price of oil increases
• Airports are expensive to build and take up large areas
• Can only carry small loads compared to ships
• Air routes are fixed
• Planes can be cancelled due to bad weather
• Aircraft are expensive to build and maintain
• Waiting lists for aircraft are long

Air Travel With a population of only 8 million, it has 5 international airports with the newly opened Al Maktoum and 5 different airlines

This large need for air travel is because:

• The UAE has a large migrant population, so many people need to fly in and out of the UAE
• The UAE is warm all year around and has become a popular tourist destination.
• The UAE is conveniently located between Europe and Asia
• The UAE has a lot of money to invest in airlines and airports
• The UAE is divided into seven Emirates – the four main airports are actually in different Emirates
• The UAE has a cheap supply of oil
• The UAE is flat country with plenty of open land. This makes building and planning airports easier

• An increased amount of tourists
• An increased amount transit passengers who will probably have to pay a tax and spend money in the airport.
• The UAE will receive a greater percentage of the global freight market and probably increased duties
• The UAE will have improve relations with other countries
• The UAE will be able to attract major, business, sporting and cultural events e.g. tennis, golf, concerts, Grand Prix
• Increased cultural diversity
• Becoming a global center of business. Dubai and Abu Dhabi will also become more important global cities.

• Increased air, noise and visual pollution
• Loss of culture? (more migrants and tourists)
• Cost of construction
• Competition between airports and airlines may mean some go bankrupt (RAK Airways has already gone bankrupt once and restarted)
• Saturation of market and costs of construction cannot be repaid
• The UAE is in an area vulnerable to political unrest e.g. Arab Spring, Iran which could hurt demand

The general benefits of improved air travel include:

• The ability to go on more exotic and long distance holidays
• The ability to visit friends and family abroad quickly and easily and also for migrants to return home
• Sports teams being able to play global fixtures i.e. the Champions League would not exist without air travel
• Perishables goods like flowers and fruits are now globally available around the world
• Businesses and industries can conduct face-to-face meetings
• People can fly for medical abroad and emergency aid and help can reach countries quickly

• Carbon emissions contributing to greenhouse effect
• Air, noise and visual pollution for people living near airports
• Accidents are normally fatal – often killing all passengers on board
• Risk of terrorism e.g. hijacking leading to 9/11 atrocities
• Increasing cost of oil and causing it to run out quicker
• Environmental damage caused by building airports

Sea Transport

Advantages

• Cheaper over long distances
• No cost in building transport routes (seas/oceans already exist)
• Good for bulky low cost non-perishable goods e.g. coal
• Costs are spread over a large area (modern container ships hold thousands of containers)
• Containerisation has sped up the process of loading and unloading.
• Unlike planes containers can be directly transferred to trucks and trains.
• Refrigerated containers now allow more products to be transported

Disadvantages

• Much slower than air travel
• Some countries are landlocked so cannot receive shipments
• Ships are expensive to build – steel is expensive
• There are long waiting lists for large containers ships
• Oil prices are expensive so fuel for ships is expensive
• Some routes have to be built and maintained and enlarged e.g. Panama and Suez Canal
• Some shipping routes have to be dredged
• Ports are expensive to build and can damage delicate wetland areas
• Risk of attack by pirates and cost of protecting ships e.g. Horn of Africa
• Ships can have accidents and cause environmental damage e.g. oil leaks and hitting reefs
• Cargo can be lost overboard in bad weather
• Can encourage smuggling

Ted Talk

• Trade was happening, but the process was very slow.
• Malcolm Mclean proposed an idea – instead of transporting by hands and slings up onto the boats – break bulk shipping – piece by piece – 1937.
• Loading and unloading ships took very long before, before the age of containers.
• He envisioned by putting everything together into a large container.
• Containerization – idea of trade taking part in container.
• Containerization sped it up, and is the reason we have a thriving global market, and why we can move cargo from isolated places of the world, in minimal costs.
• This has shrunk the world, and enlarged human choice.

• The jobs we do are different – resources have access to – people have jobs related to export/importing, because of speeding up of trades/use of containers.
• Ease of transporting cargo on ships is the key factor.
• One size fits all, and ships, lorries and ports can move boxes for cheaper and more efficient methods.
• Everything you can imagine is shipped through cargo.
• For the UK, 90% of the stuff is imported/exported by containers.

Extension and Density of Networks
Examine the changes in a transport, internet or telecommunications network in terms of the extension of links and nodes and the intensity of use at a national or global scale.
Case Study – Mobile Phones in Kenya
Banking

Examine the changes in a transport, internet or telecommunications network in terms of the extension of links and nodes and the intensity of use at a national or global scale.

Case Study – Mobile Phones in Kenya

Banking

• M-PESA is a mobile phone service launched by Safaricom in 2007
• 5 years later 15 million people (⅓ of the Kenyan population) uses the service
• In Kenya half of adults use mobile phones
• Extends access to banking services to those who may not live in close proximity to brick-and-mortar banks
• Phone also used to transfer remittances, payment to individuals, buy goods
• Kenya inspired similar initiatives across the continent from SA to Nigeria to Tunisia
• Costs 4 cents to transfer small amounts of money
• Easier for remittances to be transferred
• ⅔ of of Kenyans who had sent money to family members or friends living in a different city or area in Kenya sent the money via a mobile phone

Agriculture
Descibre the role of information and communciations technology (ICT) in civil society and the transmission and flow of images, ideas, information and finance.
Civil Society
Political Participation
Prior to modern communication, it was difficult for people to:
Some governments have worked to restrict the use of ICT by civil society in recent years. Objective has been to suppress democratic movements by placing restriction on free speech and political involvement.
Response to Natural Disasters
Civil Society, ICT and Finance
ICT transformed the way so people can manage their own finances.
Benefits for personal finance:
Examples of societies benefiting from ICT
Protest groups.
Examine the contrasting rates, levels and patterns of adoption of an element of ICT in two countries.
China
Broadband Internet speeds in the US are only about 1/4 as fast as those in South Korea
More than 94% of people have high-speed connections
The South Korean government encourages its citizens to get computers and to hook up to high-speed Internet connections by subsidizing the price of connections for low-income and traditionally unconnected people >> e.g. one program connected housewives with broadband and taught them how to make use of the Web in their everyday lives

• Agriculture sector is one of the largest employers
• Most of these people are smallholder farmers (no access to financing or technology)
• Mobile phones are serving as platforms for sharing weather information, market prices, and micro-insurance schemes
• Allows them to make better decision —> translating them into higher earning potential
• Can send text messages to find out crop price from thousands of km away
• IN KENYA, icow is a mobile app billed as “the world’s first mobile phone cow calendar”
• Allows dairy farmers to track their cows gestation
• Give tips on breeding and nutrition

• MoMath —> mathematics teaching tool that targets users of instant messaging platform Mxit (which is South Africa’s most popular social media with more than 10 million active users)
• Mobile phones are cheaper and easier to run than PCs
• Mobile phones can bring education to women in Africa
• They often drop out of school → boys more valued in schools
• drop out to start a family
• Through mobile devices, a number of subjects taught including math (Dr Math, M4Girls), mother tongue languages (eTaleem, MoToLi), science (Text2Teach), sexual health & HIV/Aids prevention (education as a vaccine), and life skills (learning about living).
• For young mothers in Kenya, having support to access education at a distance, in the subjects above, which will be critical to their success as they grow into adults

• 30% of drugs in developing countries are fake
• Bright Simons had an idea to have unique codes within scratch cards on medicine packaging that buyers can send via SMS to a designated number to find out if the drug is genuine or not.
• It is now followed by several countries in Africa
• Malaria
• A doctor can be called into the village
• A test can be done for malaria as it is sent to an automated system where results can be gained right away
• The doctor will then receive a text message on what drug to give the child
• The doctor can also text in measurements of the child using the child’s SMS code and an automated system would calculate whether the child is undernourished

Descibre the role of information and communciations technology (ICT) in civil society and the transmission and flow of images, ideas, information and finance.

Civil Society

• Any organization or movement that works in the area between the household, the private sector and the state to negotiate matters of public concern.
• Civil societies include non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community groups, trade unions, academic institutions and faith-based organizations.

• Role of civil societies in global governance has expanded rapidly recently.
• Developments in ICT vital to expansion of civil society within and between counties.
• ICT allowed cheap, reliable communications around most of the world (sharing of information).
• Civil society organizations (CSO) are steadily and successfully applying ICT to promotion of human development
• Websites have made policy documents available online and allowed information to be communicated by emails and chat rooms e.g. Avaaz.
• ICT revolution provided a significant contribution to development activities.
• Quality of life of communities, particularly those that are relatively isolated, can be much improved when ICT becomes a part of the community’s livelihood system.
• CSO’s are increasingly integrating ICT into the fabric of development programs and projects. As local skills in this sector develop, people are more equipped to find employment and develop small business opportunities.
• Greater communication within communities themselves and with the outside world is becoming increasingly recognized as an essential part of the development process.

Political Participation

Prior to modern communication, it was difficult for people to:

• Organize opposition towards their authoritarian governments.
• Communicate with people in the outside world.
• Know what is happening in the outside world.

Some governments have worked to restrict the use of ICT by civil society in recent years. Objective has been to suppress democratic movements by placing restriction on free speech and political involvement.

Response to Natural Disasters

• Media, involving internet a lot now, is important for public donation.
• Large increase in internet use has helped to a certain extent to overcome two significant constraints on the traditional mass media in terms of maintaining public awareness or emergencies:
• Space constraints due to the need to cover other stories
• Time constraints as high interest news stories move off the front pages to less prominent positions.
• Internet helped maintain awareness over longer time periods, often through personal accounts of local people and through the steady transmission of moving images.
• Websites now common to be made by organizations involved in emergencies.
• Internet allows emergencies to be liked to related campaigns, and communication is quick.

Civil Society, ICT and Finance

ICT transformed the way so people can manage their own finances.

Benefits for personal finance:

• More people manage their bank accounts online and no longer receive paper statements. Money can be transferred electronically.
• Money taken out at machines instead of going to banks.
• Bills/taxes paid online.
• Big businesses no longer accept cheques, but require card or cash instead.
• ICT made trading in shares more accessible to normal people.
• Money transferred through phones.
• Use of comparison websites to compare companies.
• Trading and shares – companies exchanging money.
• Online shopping lower prices than stores:

• Christmas 2013 is expected to be the new record.

Examples of societies benefiting from ICT

Protest groups.

• Connections with planet through internet.

• E.g. Asian tsunami in 2004 – first natural disaster when everyone knew immediately was going on.

• E.g. oxfam, action aid.
• Linking with experts around the world in the same field.
• Can share ideas (e.g. how to share money).

Examine the contrasting rates, levels and patterns of adoption of an element of ICT in two countries.

China

• With a population of around 1,343,239,923 people, there are about 538 million internet users: this means 40.1% of the population ‘penetrates’ the internet.
• There are 294 million landlines, and 390 million mobile internet users.
• More than a billion use mobile phones (includes non-internet and internet users).
• Mobile phones are the most common medium for using the internet in China.
• The growth in internet use is fastest in rural areas.
• This is mainly due to cheaper smartphones and accessibility.
• The MAIN reason for increasing penetration is the lowering cost of connectivity.
• Internet available phones and smart phones are now available for 1000 Yuan (about 150 dollars, which is largely affordable now).
• Over half of the population of China’s internet users use blogging sites – such as Renren (the substitute of Facebook since Facebook is unavailable for Chinese people).
• Number of internet users has tripled in 8 years.
• By 2015, internet penetration is expected to reach 50% of the total population.
• Internet users in China spend an average of 2.6 hours online a day, that is 1 hour longer that the average person spends watching TV every day.
• China’s internet community is expanding at hyper speed, with profound implications for the Chinese economy, to say nothing of the country’s social norms and political system.

Broadband Internet speeds in the US are only about 1/4 as fast as those in South Korea

More than 94% of people have high-speed connections

The South Korean government encourages its citizens to get computers and to hook up to high-speed Internet connections by subsidizing the price of connections for low-income and traditionally unconnected people >> e.g. one program connected housewives with broadband and taught them how to make use of the Web in their everyday lives

• Korean parents, who tend to place high value on education, see such connections as necessities for their children’s education
• These cultural differences mean Korea has a more insatiable demand for fast Internet connections
• The “demand” encourages telecommunications companies to provide those connections
• It costs less to set up Internet infrastructure in a tightly populated place filled with high-rise apartments à more than 1,200 people per square mile in South Korea
• In the 1990s, South Korea set a priority that it would be a highly connect country with a high degree of Internet literacy –> “Korea has long been a leader in broadband and in very fast broadband”
• Korea is thinking of bringing super-fast fiber optic cables straight into homes –>is would make the internet 10 times faster than it is now
• About 2 million South Koreans (nearly 1 in 10 online users) are addicted to the internet
• The government has responded to juvenile web addiction by spending millions of dollars on counseling centers and awareness classes for children
• In September 2010, gamers aged under 18 were unable to access 19 popular online titles from midnight to 8 am >> those who play outside the curfew will find their characters growing weaker the longer they play
• The number of teenage addicts has fallen from more than 1 million to 938,000 (from 2008 to 2010), but those in their 20s and 30s have risen to 975,000