More important than the Internet?

05 Feb More important than the Internet?

At the time of the Ideal X voyage, no one could have predicted the degree to which this uniform steel box would become such a dramatic agent of global change.  The container, like the Internet, is the key to a fundamental global network.  The Internet revolution connects people across great distances. It affects international  integration by promoting trade in information and technology, in services outsourcing, and in the migration of highly skilled professionals. When the Internet is disrupted, however, people find other ways to communicate including by telephone or by fax. Information has found various global routes for hundreds of years. The transportation of physical goods, however, is less flexible. The container  network, more than any other important global system— including the Internet—is the global network that the world cannot do without. Today, some 18 million containers continuously crisscross the world in a global network that defines the global economy.