The harbor bridge and the Sydney Opera House are prominent symbols of Sydney and Australia.  They are icons that people know Australia by, and that generate great amounts of revenue for the Australian economy.  Russ said that every day, $100,000 is earned from people just climbing the bridge!!  These two venues are huge tourist attractions.

The skyline of Sydney shows just how much of a global and connected city it is.  The skyscrapers and buildings operate and connect with other companies and corporations around the world.

The amount of people by the bridge and around the streets in general is amazing.  Most of the people that I am seeing come from so many ethic groups, cultures, and nationalities.

Though it is in the distance, the magnitude of beach-goers occupying Bondi Beach is astonishing.  Similar to the above picture, these locations offer a meeting point of so groups of people.  With connections going on from company to company and person to person, globalization 3.0 can be seen even on the beach.

The Sydney Olympic Park was constructed with environmentalism in mind.  All of the lights are operated with solar electricity and all of the other buildings have green features as well.  As an environmentalist, and a tourist, I am drawn to that aspect of Australia's economy- trying to be efficient and not detrimental to the environment. 

Another view of the beach, and the people who are at the beach.

Blog #2

            The Sydney Olympic Park is an amazing example of a site that was initiated based upon an event that would bring in tourism revenue.  Once Sydney won the Olympic bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics on September 23, 1993, construction started construction on multiple arenas and sporting venues to get it ready for millions of fans, athletes, and worldwide attention. Just driving into the Olympic Park, I could tell that this area was erected with the plan to hold large numbers of people in both the sporting arenas and the general groups.  That could be seen in the large open spaces, the train station, and the overall expanse of the grounds. 

            With a price tag of $6.5 billion, the Sydney Olympic Games needed to come a long way to break even.  According to the article by Jill Haynes, between the years 1994-2005, $6.5 million extra will be generated for Australia from the 2000 Sydney Olympics (CP 125).  Looking at the games as a continuous investment in Australia’s largest service export of tourism is crucial.  Because the Olympic games are so heavily televised and publicized, it produced much advertising and education about Australia, which produced a huge tourism boost. 

            In the Tourism Australia article/brochure, they focused on the current base numbers of tourism and how they are going to increase by 2013.  In these statistics, they look at criteria such as marketing, business events, industry developments, and R & D.  The Sydney Olympic Park is a great place to use for events to draw tourists, both domestic and international, in.  With large sporting events, concerts, and potentially business events, the Olympic Park still has the potential to draw many people to Sydney and other parts of Australia. 

            One thing that I was particularly impressed with was the amount of volunteers that helped put the Olympics on because they saved the event $140 million dollars in costs. 

Blog Entry #1

It seems as though Australia was born and exists as a country because of Globalization 1.0.  Because Australia began as a location for Britain to send their convicts and as a geographic advantage to Britain’s trade economy.  Globalization 1.0 was from 1492 to around 1800 and was focused on countries.  During this time, the spice trade with India and China dominated trade and was a huge factor in the global economy.  There was a great deal of competition between France, Portugal, Spain and Britain.  British muscle in Australia, and their governance of it was strengthened during Globalization 1.0. 

            Richard Florida believes that instead of the world being flat, the “world is spiky.”  Friedman, rather, believes that during Globalization 3.0, the world is becoming flat with the 10 flatteners that connect the world on an economical basis.  Florida does not think it is possible to say that the entire world can be treated equally because it fails to take into account urbanization.  Urbanization has been one of the main reasons that many cities and strong research and communication entities have developed, it is because they have the resources and funding to accomplish many things.  Well-educated people in the world would often come to the spiky, urban parts of the world and because the main factor is education.  It has given a great advantage to those who are looking for global connectedness.  “People in spiky places are often more connected to one another from over half a world away then they are to people and places in their own backyard.” The peaks of the world, many situated in US, China, India, and Japan are changing continuously, but the valleys are staying the same.

            The general population at the beach today consisted of individuals within the range of 20-35.  That is not to say that there were not outliers that included small children, parents, grandparents, etc… but overall it was an extremely young, rowdy, and boisterous population.  There was every nationality and ethnic group that you could imagine at the beach.  Asian men fully dressed in business suits walking in the sand, the stereotypical Italian with the sweat suit and gelled hair, and everyone in between.  Asians, Indians, Italians, English, American are just a few of the nationalities and ethic groups that could be found.  To me, visiting Bondi beach proved that this beach would not have the broad appeal that it does without Globalization 3.0.  By catering to a vast array of people, Bondi beach offers something for each group.  The stores and restaurants by the beach have international food variations and who doesn’t love a day in a gorgeous location with an ocean and the sun!  The “steroids” that people use to communicate with others at the beach is also amazing- digital, mobile, personal, and virtual. 

            It is so hard to be able to answer the “typical Australian” stereotype question because I still have no idea who is Australian!  This country as such a huge transient population, tourist economy, and general resident diversity that finding an Australian to analyze is a difficult task to accomplish.