Globalization 3.0 in Cambridge, Vermont

Globalization 3.0, as defined by Thomas Friedman in “The World Is Flat,” has reached the semirural community of Cambridge, VT.

This summer we were exploring scenic byways in northern Vermont. As we rounded the corner by The Boyden Farm, Carole observed that it was time for a coffee break. Just then I looked up, and atop a small rise to our right I saw a sign advertising “Brown & Jenkins Vermont Roasted Gourmet Coffee Since 1984.” We looped back and pulled into the parking lot.

Inside was not your ordinary coffee shop, but something more like a back room operation. Huge ceramic jars of unroasted coffee stood in rows; coffee roasting machines lined the right wall; bags of coffee for sale lined the shelves. A couple of tables with oilskin tablecloths stood to the left; a small boy was wheeling around the bare wooden floor on a toy truck; and six dispensers of brewed gourmet coffee stood in the corner. Carole and I each sampled a few, then filled our cups with a brew we liked and dropped a couple of dollars into the open large-mouthed jar. Carole browsed some photos and cards by a local artist, while I sat down to read a bit more of Friedman’s book.

In the background the father of the small boy was talking with the proprietress about buying some coffee. He evidently runs a restaurant at nearby Smuggler’s Notch, and periodically shows up for supplies. He and his family walked out with five bags of coffee.

So if it’s not really a coffee shop, what is it? Brown & Jenkins is primarily a coffee roasting company that ships bags of its gourmet product all over the United States and into Canada. You can read more of its history online, but briefly, it started out as a mail-order catalog business based in nearby Burlington. By 1999 it had moved with the times, opened its own web site, and is now driven almost solely by internet sales. Finally, a couple of years ago our hostess and her husband, realizing that the daily trek into Burlington was wearing her out for no good reason, decided to rebase the business in the warehouse-like building it now occupies across from The Boyden Farm.

I asked our hostess if she shipped internationally.

Well, no, she said, she hadn’t wanted to have to learn yet about the complexities of international shipping. She only sends it to our troops in Afghanistan and to the company that her coffee roaster’s daughter is part of in Iraq. Some customers cart it back to the UK for themselves. So far she’s avoided other international sales, although she has had a request, for example, from Australia. Can real international sales be far behind?

But in its operations Brown & Jenkins is also a small local business. A couple of local people pick up some money by providing homemade goodies for another couple of bucks each in the jar. And whenever it’s time to roast a new batch of beans, other neighbors come in for the day and help out while (so far) their kids run around on the play equipment.

Friedman’s book advances the thesis that, with the advent of advanced communication, transportation, and information processing options, there is no reason why small businesses and individuals should not join in the march to increasing globalization. It’s already happening in Cambridge, Vermont.

The Unstoppable Growth of Online Buying

Two tidbits of news highlight the ongoing, relentless march of online buying.

General Motors and eBay have announced a formal plan for California GM dealers to sell GM cars on cobranded web sites. 225 of the 250 California dealers will participate.

No, this is not terribly new. Since I own a Toyota, I’ve been aware for some time of Toyota’s own web site, buyatoyota.com. And GM and eBay have already partnered in selling GM certified used vehicles. But what caught my eye was the statement that “The trial is part of Detroit-based GM’s turnaround plan.” The market forces are implacably driving another traditional brick-and-mortar business to further and deliberate use of the Internet.

The other tidbit is a press release from Akamai Technologies highlighting the adoption of their Dynamic Site Accelerator by Bidz.com, a “leading online auctioneer” of jewelry. Bidz.com, of course, is tailored around online sales already, but the article points out that they had tried out a number of different site accelerators before settling on the Akamai solution.

For my wife and me, we'll continue to patronize our local jewelers, Swanson’s of Arlington, because it’s run by people we know and trust, and we can first see and handle what we’re thinking of buying. But the Akamai press release reminds us how lucrative the online jewelry business can be, and hence how many people are turning to buying online instead.

Digital Photos for Future Generations

A news item from the BBC reminds us how transient our accomplishments in this life may be. Wouldn’t you like your descendants to be able to access all those cool digital pictures you’ve taken?

A team at Tokyo's Keio University, led by Professor Tadahiro Kuroda, is creating a massive permanent storage device out of stacked silicon wafers that can be read wirelessly. By sealing the units against oxygen and moisture, the team hopes to create a repository for pictures and other digital data that can last a 1,000 years. They’re calling this technology “Rosetta Stone,” after the original Rosetta Stone, now in the British Museum, which itself has already lasted over two millennia.

There are some potential problems: Using this technology, or any other microscopically compact technology, requires agreeing on a standard way of storing and reading the data. We’re probably getting there, but let’s hope the human race remains intact enough to remember the standard mechanism for the next 1,000 years.

In addition, a huge magnetic pulse at the site of the storage unit could also corrupt the data.

Ray Lucchesi of Silverton Technology recommends storing the info in the form of 3-D barcodes, since these will remain readable with visible light and would be insensitive to magnetic pulses. But bar codes too require remembering how to interpret their format as the human race continues to move on.