Impact of Hot & Cold Cultures on Tech Innovation & Consumer Markets in a Globalized World, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Impact of Hot & Cold Cultures on Tech Innovation & Consumer Markets in a Globalized World e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! THE PRICE OF BEING A FORTRESS - UNIT 8 The social anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, identifies two different types of society. The “hot cultures”, which are societies open to trade, they warm quickly to the new and assimilate change. By contrast, there are the “cold cultures”, which are insular, they try to confine new thoughts and ideas as well as maintain central control. The two models have one thing in common: they are both in the middle of an increasingly networked world: the difference lies in how they are connected to it. Those countries which are on the hot side maintain their sense of cultural identity and self-governance, while gaining benefits from the global archipelago of which they are part. They have the chance to take advantage of the network effect that comes from collaboration. On the other side, we have the so-called “cold cultures”, which often put too many boundaries, cultural and technological at the same time. They become a sort of digital islands, losing the economic and intellectual advantages that come from free trade. This loss is cumulative: the more countries are left out from the global archipelago, the wider the gap will be. This gap can also increase to the point that it potentially becomes irrevocable. Technology innovation builds in layers: if there is no layer, it means there is nothing to build on. In fact, citizens of archipelago nations grow up with a far larger conceptual structure: they have a global sense of what is technological feasible. They tend to look at what other nations did, so they waste less time getting things done, since they have an example to follow. Digital islanders, on the contrary, are cut off from outside innovation. These citizens tend to ask themselves “how can we do this?”: they just look at what they have got. In this way, they are forced to invent from scratch using their local materials. Moreover, greater exposure also gives archipelagos more sophisticated consumers. In digital islands, as the gap widens in consumer education, adoption of new products slows proportionally. For example, Japanese people have got everything that is technological so, when there is something new, they can adapt quickly. Instead, less educated consumers will need more time to adapt. Slower adoption rates also imply early- stage revenue, which means less investment capital available for new projects. Less profits, less money to invest. If you live in a country where digital rightsmanagement systems are required in order to listen to mp3s, then you will not be able to use devices from Japan or Europe that do not have them. Digital islands consumer markets will not be large enough to justify the additional parallel development cost and they will cease being primary consumer markets for new products. For instance, if America produces DVDs but it can sell them only in the USA, it will stop produce them, because it is not worth it. In conclusion, the author, David Holtzman, is concerned about America's future. He thinks that his country is at a crossroads. There is a part of population asking to regulate privacy and identity information, and the remaining part who wants to control intellectual property. This fighting is stopping America from moving on and, what is more, whichever side prevails, it will bring to the same result: an America isolated from the free flow of the global archipelago. Technological simplicity is a high price to pay for “security”.