Download Honesty Young

China Research Laboratory
Globalization
Honesty Young,
Deputy Director, CTO
IBM China Research Laboratory
© 2006 IBM Corporation
China Research Laboratory
Globalization
 Threat (危机) or opportunity (转机)
 Many aspects
– Economical, social, cultural, political, environmental, and
technological
 Freer movement of
– Goods, capital, knowledge, information, people, and
technology
 Enabled mostly by
– Reducing the cost of transaction/operation by 1 – 2 orders of
magnitude through human innovation and technology progress
• Communication bandwidth, containerization …
• Organizations, legal systems, infrastructures …
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VLDB 2006
© 2006 IBM Corporation
China Research Laboratory
SIGMOD held outside US
SIGMOD Going Global
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4
3
2
1
0
1970
1980
VLDB 2006
1990
2000
2010
© 2006 IBM Corporation
China Research Laboratory
How a Genius May Work Globally?
 99% perspiration 
performing many
experiments to validate
ideas
– Less expensive to
carry out experiments
at higher PPP/nominal
GDP regions
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VLDB 2006
4
BRIC
PPP GDP to Nominal GDP
“Genius is 1%
inspiration and 99%
perspiration” - Thomas
Edison
3
2
Others
US
1
World
EU
0
Source: IMF
© 2006 IBM Corporation
China Research Laboratory
Where Are the Knowledge Workers?
% of World Nominal GDP
% of College Students
BRIC
10.3%
Others
31.3%
US
28.1%
Source: OECD
EU
16%
EU
30.3%
Student % to GDP %
BRIC
33%
Others
36%
US
15%
4
BRIC
3
2
Others
1
US
EU
0
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VLDB 2006
© 2006 IBM Corporation
China Research Laboratory
An Inter-Dependent Globe
China's top 20 Trading Partners
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
import
export
Source: China government statistics
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VLDB 2006
© 2006 IBM Corporation
China Research Laboratory
Implications
 Gravitate to the norm and everyone benefits
 Even thought not everyone can start something new and big,
be the first one to know when a technology matures or will
not be practical any time soon
– Make an informed decision
 Ensure your solution scales with leading $/performance
– Globalization is mostly enabled by lowering the cost of
providing the similar functions by orders of magnitude
 Not a zero-sum game (principle of comparative advantage)
– Collaborate openly and globally when appropriate
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VLDB 2006
© 2006 IBM Corporation