Global Marketplace

   According to Goldsmith (1998), today's computer networks can create global connectedness, or "the opportunity to interact in a way that leads to the rapid and positive evolution of our species". Computer technology has been diffused all over the world through factory and office automation systems. These computerized infrastructures support the development of global corporations that no longer depend on a specific geographic location to conduct business. In contrast to the concept of geographic nations, these corporations embrace virtual mobility and transnationality.

   Computer networks have fostered the global dispersion of economic power and influence across nations. Schiller (1999) has pointed out that "by the mid 1990s, transnational companies generated some two-thirds of total world exports of goods and services". Transnational corporations have factories, production plants, and offices in several different countries around the world, both developed and undeveloped. Many of these companies reorganized their cross-border production activities with the aid of computer networks. To meet the needs of these global corporations, an improved transnational computer communications system developed with worldwide capabilities. Software development, database management, billing, accounting services, and subscription processing were moved from high-wage to low-wage countries. For instance, animation factories located in South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines create many cartoon programs such as The Simpsons, broadcast in the United States. To coordinate global business activities, English has been used as an international business language.