We are at a time in history that I truly feel lucky to be alive to witness this brave new world. The sense I feel from the media and literature that I have read is that global economies are on the brink of collapse. I have long held a nihilist inspired view that economy as we know it and as we have evolved it from it's caveman barter system beginnings is not necessary for the human race to thrive. Someday economy will be extinct and replaced with a more evolved means of trade and gratification of wealth that our human civilization needs.

Recently I picked up Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" and despite the lengthy and rather protracted details on certain points I found this to be an interesting read. The book basically outlines in detail 10 factors that Friedman identifies as flattening factors in technology and business that have made the world flat. The basic premise of the book is that the playing field is being leveled for people across the world through the Internet, web applications, outsourcing, and technology and the convergence of all of these things.

The next key driver in the evolution of technology will be convergence. Today, convergence is already beginning to happen on a large scale with high technology devices, infrastructure, and software once developed for one purpose now being used to enable new functions by converging with other technologies. Convergence has had a broad impact on individuals, societies, organizations, and the world. Convergence is a key driver of globalization by bringing the world together through technology. Convergence is driving modern business, consumerism, and global economies and societies.

Today there has been a great battle waging in the media, marketing, and advertising industries between the irresistible force of convergence battling with the immovable object of today's media and advertising industries. It seems that the immovable object has lost to convergence.

Internet and network security must provide us with integrity, confidentiality, privacy, freedom to transact commerce and availability of data. In order to ensure we have all of these things we must use tools such as anti-virus and be vigilant of suspicious web sites and emails. Your web presence is reflective of yourself and thus must be treated as such. Your computer is like your house that you live in online.