Global Business Uses of VC

So, I’ve been slowly working my way through The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. I know others are blogging on this too, but I’m interested in the business uses of videoconferencing, and other applications I see from the book for VC use in schools. I’m still not finished the book, but thought while I’m sitting in the airport waiting to fly home from NECC that I’d write a bit about what I’ve learned so far.

I am always very interested in how videoconferencing is used in the business world, because I think it informs our use of VC in education. So here’s some examples of VC from the book:

Infosys, he said, hold a virtual meeting of the key players from its global supply chain for any project at any time on that supersize screen. So their American designers could be on the screen speaking with their Indian software writers and their Asian manufacturers all at once. p. 6
Hmm. What kind of project could middle or high school students do with global colleagues that would simulate this type of collaborative work?!

Some of the Indian accounting firms even go about marketing themselves to American firms through teleconferencing and skip the travel. p. 14
Hmm. How about brushing up on your interview-via-vc skills?!

There are videoconferencing facilities on every floor of Boeing’s Moscow office, so the engineers don’t have to rely on e-mail when they have a problem to solve with their American counterparts. They can have a face-to-face conversation.
Hmm. I wonder how they resolve the time zone issues that we struggle with in K12 global VCs?

More next time....