Digital business and labour: work, exchange and global connections

The economic context examines how people work and exchange goods and services. A business uses digital systems to coordinate employees, record transactions and understand demand. A platform can also decide which seller or creator a customer encounters. We will connect a system’s mechanism to opportunities and constraints for different people. A successful business outcome does not automatically mean every worker or customer benefits. This deck covers the assigned business and working-practice sections, and identifies the remainder of the economic chapter.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 213.

Consider a school event shop. Each sale updates a transaction record. Summing sales by item can inform the next stock order. A shared calendar helps volunteers coordinate, and a shared document records decisions. The system connects information to action. The textbook describes movement towards more dynamic teams, but that is a possible organizational change rather than a universal outcome of using software. A company can adopt digital tools while retaining a strict hierarchy. Explain the specific change in the example you use.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 213–214.

A subscription service may value renewal, a marketplace may earn a commission on completed sales, and an advertising-funded service may gain from opportunities to show ads. These are possible incentives, not proof of the objective used by every business. A platform’s ranking choice can support one of those outcomes. Distinguish a claim about the business model from evidence about an actual ranking rule. Consider customer value, operating costs and other constraints as well as revenue.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 213–214.

These numbers are invented. Badges may have sold more because they were cheaper or available for longer. A manager might order more badges, but should check whether the poster stock ran out or whether a different audience will attend next time. The mechanism is transaction capture, aggregation, interpretation and a stock decision. The implication is conditional: if the pattern continues and the stock decision matches demand, waste may fall. Avoid turning a single descriptive total into a guaranteed forecast.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 213–214.

The chapter uses diversity in two related but different senses. A business may diversify what it sells, and it may seek a diverse workforce. These should not be confused. An inclusive organization also examines whether people can participate effectively, rather than simply counting demographic categories. Digital recruitment can broaden access, but an unsuitable screening rule can exclude applicants. The next two slides explain the textbook’s four diversification categories using invented examples, before we return to hiring and power.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 214–215.

Using the textbook’s terminology, a video platform adding a messaging service is horizontal diversification because it offers a complementary service. An online seller operating its own delivery fleet is vertical diversification because it takes over a part of its supply or delivery chain. These are invented illustrations. A firm can pursue more than one strategy, so explain which relationship a particular decision changes. Avoid memorizing a company name as if it always belongs to one category.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 214.

A platform adapting its existing service for business accounts illustrates concentric diversification in this textbook. A game company entering an unrelated agricultural business illustrates conglomerate diversification. The examples clarify the relationship rather than asserting facts about a real company. The textbook’s inquiry on page 215 repeats the word conglomerate in a prompt whose description matches concentric. Use the definitions on page 214 to resolve that printing inconsistency. In a response, justify the category by the change being made.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 214–215.

The chapter discusses automated hiring and psychometric testing as historical examples. A psychometric survey aims to measure capabilities or behavioural characteristics. A screening system may reduce processing time, but its measures must relate to the role and work appropriately for different applicants. We do not treat the textbook’s descriptions of named vendors in 2022 as their current product specifications. For an inquiry, verify present practices and examine the evidence for validity, accessibility and unequal outcomes.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 215–217.

Purpose: A score needs evidence of validity for its intended hiring use. Say: Psychometric describes a measurement purpose, not proof of an accurate instrument. Ask whether it measures the relevant job skill, works for affected groups and allows accommodation or review. Expression, power and values connect through what the system treats as employability. Ask: What evidence would an employer need before using a survey score to reject an applicant? Name a candidate safeguard. Practice feedback: use the worked exhibit to check the distinction; keep the first attempt and append a correction. Secure: apply the distinction to a different venue. Partial: isolate the disputed operation and compare the two cases. Unclear: reconstruct the first worked example before retrying. Later return: next lesson, close notes and explain this distinction in a library or community-centre system. These are formative practice responses, not registered assessment items.

Textbook layer: Hodder 2022, supplied chapter pp. 215–217. Original classroom examples are fictional.

An older account of facial or voice analysis cannot establish what a hiring service offers today. We can still learn from its dilemma: whether a measured signal validly supports a consequential employment decision. Label the date, separate the general idea from the vendor claim, and seek current documentation before writing a present-tense case. Our required real cases this week use the dated provider, regulator, YouTube and ILO sources in the case file. This prevents a vivid historical example from becoming an unsupported current assertion.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 216–217.

The textbook describes start-ups, office design and digital working practices. A start-up is an organization in an early stage of development. Funding and product uncertainty can affect workers. Flexible spaces and shared tools can support coordination, yet open rooms can also distract people and some tasks need privacy. The historical descriptions of particular company offices are not current evidence of employee experience. Judge the arrangement against the task and the people who use it, including access, concentration and boundaries between work and personal time.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 217.

An employee working from home can be remote without being a digital nomad. A person travelling while completing online work may be both. The system requires suitable devices, networks, access to files and ways to coordinate. That can expand location choices, but time zones, unreliable access and data handling can introduce costs. Permission to work across borders depends on the specific setting, so a course discussion should investigate the relevant rules rather than assume freedom to work anywhere.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 217–218.

A group asking people to submit designs is crowdsourcing. A group asking for donations to produce an exhibition is crowdfunding. One gathers contributions of work or information, and the other gathers money. A crowdsourced collection may contain errors or uneven perspectives, so someone still needs to evaluate it. Crowdfunding does not guarantee a project will succeed. Use a specific example and identify what is being contributed. No account creation, payment or participation in a labour platform is required for this lesson.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 218–219.

These categories can overlap, but they emphasize different features. Labelling individual images for payment is microwork. A platform matching a customer with someone to complete a delivery illustrates gig work. Renting access to equipment through a booking service illustrates a sharing arrangement. A creator earning advertising revenue is not automatically performing microwork. Explain the task, payment arrangement and platform’s role before drawing comparisons. Avoid assuming the same working conditions across all digital work.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 219.

A matching platform reduces the effort needed to find a customer. It may also set the conditions under which a worker appears, receives a task or challenges a rating. That changes the power relationship. A numerical rating can affect visibility without revealing the context of a complaint. These are mechanisms to investigate in a specific case rather than universal findings about every platform. Trace the information that enters the allocation and identify who can change a record or contest the result.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 217–219.

The textbook explains employee organizations and collective bargaining, and raises the contrast between employment and contracted task provision. Digital coordination can help workers share information and organize. The applicable rights and benefits depend on law and the actual relationship in a particular jurisdiction. We will not label every gig worker the same way. An inquiry needs a defined place, period and source. The conceptual question is how the platform’s control and the worker’s ability to negotiate affect the distribution of benefits and risks.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 219.

The provider’s earnings overview specifies a Watch Page share of 55 percent of net advertising revenue and a Shorts share of 45 percent of the revenue allocated from the Creator Pool. Those denominators differ. Comparing the percentages alone does not show which gives a particular creator more income. Income also depends on the eligible revenue, allocation and activity. Use the exact terms and source locator in the case file. This source supports the stated payment rules, not an independent finding about earnings stability.

YouTube Partner earnings overview, checked 5 October 2026. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72902 Textbook connection: pp. 213–219.

The ILO’s historical research summary considers platform work from a labour perspective. It helps us ask about access to work, working conditions and social protection. Its date and scope matter. Use it to frame a labour question and compare with an appropriate current case, not to calculate a creator’s present income. A source may be relevant to one part of an inquiry and insufficient for another. That is why the source passport ties usefulness to a specific claim.

ILO, 23 February 2021, historical research summary. https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/rapid-growth-digital-economy-calls-coherent-policy-response-0 Textbook connection: pp. 217–219.

Consider our invented museum feed. A discovery weight increases exposure for an unfamiliar topic. A possible immediate impact is that a new creator gains opportunities to be seen. A possible implication is a broader range of creators sustaining an audience, but that requires continued exposure and suitable income opportunities. The implication is not simply a more dramatic synonym for the impact. State the time horizon, the affected group and the conditions linking them. Your Friday response uses real evidence and must retain the limits of those sources.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 213–219.

Pause before the second teaching arc. Ask each learner for one mechanism and one precise distinction from the first arc. Keep this response as a first attempt. If the learner treats revenue as profit, return to the specified payment base. If work arrangements are confused, contrast where work happens with how tasks are contracted. The next arc teaches the remaining assigned reading rather than assuming students acquire it from a quiz. Split this long deck across two encounters and retrieve earlier ideas at the start of the second.

Bomfim et al., Digital Society for the IB Diploma, Hodder, 2022. Printed pages cited per slide. Original paraphrase. Textbook connection: pp. 213–227.

A fictional bicycle workshop uses software to generate a stock report, while a worker still diagnoses damage and talks with customers. Automating the report is a task change, not evidence that the entire job has vanished. The textbook introduces automation and employment on page 220. Its dated warehouse numbers are not current class evidence. The ILO’s refined 2025 research estimates potential exposure of occupations to generative AI; it does not count actual job losses. Use the distinction between capability, adoption and measured employment outcomes. The workshop image is a generated conceptual example, not a photograph of a real employer.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 220. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named. Current-context source checked 11 October 2026: https://www.ilo.org/resource/article/how-might-generative-ai-impact-different-occupations

Suppose a fictional parcel centre records picking time. A manager compares a worker’s time with a target and sends a prompt to speed up. The next recorded time becomes feedback. A faster average does not establish safe work or explain why a particular worker took longer. Gamification adds game elements such as scores or badges to influence participation. It is not itself a measure of employee wellbeing. Explain both the processing rule and the worker’s ability to challenge an inaccurate record. This is a synthetic mechanism; it makes no claim about current Amazon practices.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 220–221. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

Purpose: A points system can reward speed while overlooking another outcome. Say: Game-like scoring can give feedback and motivation. A narrow speed target may discourage breaks or quality checks. Evaluate workload, task difficulty and safety evidence as well as throughput; do not infer actual injury rates from the demonstration. Ask: Explain a possible benefit and risk of a speed leaderboard. Propose a measurable safeguard that does not assume workers are at fault. Practice feedback: use the worked exhibit to check the distinction; keep the first attempt and append a correction. Secure: apply the distinction to a different venue. Partial: isolate the disputed operation and compare the two cases. Unclear: reconstruct the first worked example before retrying. Later return: next lesson, close notes and explain this distinction in a library or community-centre system. These are formative practice responses, not registered assessment items.

Textbook layer: Hodder 2022, supplied chapter pp. 220–221. Original classroom examples are fictional.

E-commerce means buying or selling goods or services online. Classify the parties to a particular transaction. A parts supplier selling stock to a repair shop is B2B. The repair shop selling a bracket to a customer is B2C. One person reselling a used bicycle to another is C2C, even if a business operates the marketplace connecting them. An online marketplace mediates listings, discovery or exchange; it need not be the seller of every item. A card payment is a means of settlement, not a fourth buyer/seller category. E-trading is the online exchange of financial products, a narrower activity within e-commerce.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 221–222. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

Purpose: Buying a share differs from buying a physical product. Say: E-trading is exchange of financial products through digital systems. A platform interface does not replace market execution, clearing and settlement. Separate access from guaranteed profit. Do not teach the 2021 report’s T+2 description as a current universal rule. Ask: Distinguish an online book purchase from an online share purchase. Explain one role the visible app does not perform by itself. Practice feedback: use the worked exhibit to check the distinction; keep the first attempt and append a correction. Secure: apply the distinction to a different venue. Partial: isolate the disputed operation and compare the two cases. Unclear: reconstruct the first worked example before retrying. Later return: next lesson, close notes and explain this distinction in a library or community-centre system. These are formative practice responses, not registered assessment items.

Textbook layer: Hodder 2022, supplied chapter pp. 221–225. Original classroom examples are fictional.

This is unscored practice. Ask everyone to select and justify a response. The correct classification follows the participants, not the platform’s presence. After the feedback, ask learners to classify an unfamiliar online repair-consultation sale. A secure learner can distinguish a service from a physical good. A partial learner should label buyer and seller first. If the response is unclear, draw two parties and a third marketplace intermediary before trying again. Return next lesson without the diagram.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 220–222. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

Microtargeting uses data to tailor content or advertisements to a selected audience. A fictional store might infer cycling interest from visits to helmet pages and display a bicycle advert. The visit is observed; the interest is inferred. A relevant advert may help a buyer discover a product, while collecting or reusing data can affect privacy. A click supports the claim that an advert was clicked, not that it persuaded the buyer or improved their life. To evaluate success, ask what was measured, what was omitted, and whether the comparison supports a causal claim. Do not ask students to disclose personal advertising histories.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 222. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

An online sale can be priced in Canadian dollars and paid using a card or bank transfer. That does not make the currency a cryptocurrency. Money can function as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value; the Bank of Canada’s February 2026 explanation provides a current Canadian context. Cryptocurrency systems use cryptographic methods and distributed-ledger arrangements; their governance and rights vary. Do not repeat the textbook’s broad statement that all cryptocurrency is unregulated as a universal current fact. This lesson classifies systems; it is not an investment activity. No purchase, wallet or account is needed.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 223. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named. Current-context source checked 11 October 2026: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2026/02/what-is-money/

The textbook’s NFT discussion is a historical starting point. Distinguish an identifier recorded on a ledger from the associated image or music and from permission to reproduce that work. WIPO’s explanatory article warns that an NFT purchase does not generally transfer copyright; a separate rights agreement may do so. A token record alone is therefore not sufficient evidence of permission to print or reuse an associated picture. The value of a token and the authenticity of the associated work are also different questions. Use an invented digital art example, not a trading exercise.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 223. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named. Current-context source checked 11 October 2026: https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/non-fungible-tokens-nfts-and-copyright-42365

A frequent error is to call every digital payment a cryptocurrency or every token an ownership right in a work. Ask for a sentence distinguishing the layers. Give practice feedback, then ask about a ticket barcode used to enter a concert: the code may support an admission claim under the ticket rules, but does not confer copyright in the performance. This is a parallel example. A learner should explain the claim and the conditions, not merely memorize the name of a technology.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 223. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

Consider a fictional school community market that accepts only an app payment. A connected customer may pay quickly; another customer without the required account cannot buy. An outage can interrupt both groups. A cashless society is the stronger idea of all transactions being electronic, not merely increasing card use. Compare convenience, access, privacy and resilience using an explicit stakeholder. A defensible response might preserve a cash or assisted alternative, but test its costs and reliability. Do not treat old textbook global banking or Swedish payment percentages as current data.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 223. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named. Current-context source checked 11 October 2026: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2026/02/what-is-money/

Microtransactions are small purchases such as virtual items inside an app. A loot box offers a random or mystery reward; not all microtransactions do. In a synthetic example, twelve purchases at two dollars total twenty-four dollars. A low individual price is not a spending limit. Evaluate clearer cost display, purchase confirmation or limits against the player’s control and the developer’s business model. Rules vary by jurisdiction; this deck makes no blanket claim that every loot box is legally gambling or universally banned. No real purchases or gaming accounts are required.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 223–224. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

Additive manufacturing builds material up; subtractive manufacturing removes material from a larger piece. A simple filament printer commonly takes a CAD-derived model, uses slicing software to plan layers and paths, then deposits heated material. The conceptual workshop image shows a non-critical bottle holder; it does not certify a safe bicycle part. The operator still checks dimensions and suitability. Potential reductions in offcuts do not guarantee lower total environmental impact: material, energy, failed prints and the comparison method matter. No printer operation is assigned in this DS lesson. Explain the digital-to-physical mechanism and evaluate a conditional outcome.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 224. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

Ask for an individual check before globalization. A learner must separate a plausible advantage from an observed overall result. On a different case, a dental lab prints a trial model: a shorter lead time is possible, but actual reliability and material costs need evidence. Do not generalize every printing process from a plastic filament example. Use feedback to repair the missing link, then ask learners to explain a new fabrication scenario without copying the earlier paragraph.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 223–224. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

Purpose: A regulator’s staff report qualifies the textbook’s feedback-loop account. Say: The textbook gives a simplified account centred on Reddit and short positions. The SEC staff report discusses interacting participation, sentiment, market structure and settlement risks. Use the difference to practise qualified explanation rather than turn the case into a formula for trading. Ask: What can this evidence establish about digital market participation? What would you need before blaming one mechanism for the entire rise? Practice feedback: use the worked exhibit to check the distinction; keep the first attempt and append a correction. Secure: apply the distinction to a different venue. Partial: isolate the disputed operation and compare the two cases. Unclear: reconstruct the first worked example before retrying. Later return: next lesson, close notes and explain this distinction in a library or community-centre system. These are formative practice responses, not registered assessment items.

Textbook layer: Hodder 2022, supplied chapter pp. 225. Original classroom examples are fictional. Historical primary source checked 11 Oct 2026: https://www.sec.gov/files/staff-report-equity-options-market-struction-conditions-early-2021.pdf

A fictional Halifax design shop sells a downloadable template to an overseas customer and buys a font licence from an overseas supplier. The first is borderless selling; the second is global sourcing. International reach can create opportunity for a small firm, but access, language, fulfilment and different rules can constrain it. For physical goods, shipping and returns still matter. An environmental or labour advantage needs evidence about actual practices, not simply the supplier’s location or a lower price. Explain how a networked ordering or collaboration system changes reach before making a judgement.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 225–226. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

The textbook’s page 226 wording combines offshoring and outsourcing. Teach a more precise analytical distinction: offshoring concerns geography; outsourcing concerns the organizational boundary. A company-owned overseas support team is offshore but still in-house. A local contractor is outsourced but not offshore. An overseas contractor can be both. Returning operations from abroad is reshoring; moving a task back inside is insourcing. The chapter also uses inshoring for a return from abroad and nearsourcing for operations closer to end markets. State the meaning you use rather than merging location with ownership.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 226. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

Purpose: Location and who performs the task must be tracked separately. Say: Returning location does not necessarily change the contractor. Internal delivery does not require returning across a border. Nearsourcing concerns closeness to the end market. Digital tools coordinate the work, while shipping, skills and regulations still constrain it. Ask: A company brings production home but retains an outside contractor. Explain what changed and what did not. Practice feedback: use the worked exhibit to check the distinction; keep the first attempt and append a correction. Secure: apply the distinction to a different venue. Partial: isolate the disputed operation and compare the two cases. Unclear: reconstruct the first worked example before retrying. Later return: next lesson, close notes and explain this distinction in a library or community-centre system. These are formative practice responses, not registered assessment items.

Textbook layer: Hodder 2022, supplied chapter pp. 226–227. Original classroom examples are fictional.

Bring the chapter together through power, systems and change. A cheaper remote supplier may lower a firm’s immediate cost but create a dependency or change local employment. A longer-distance supplier is not automatically worse; compare the actual service, transport, labour conditions and alternatives. State an explicit criterion, a mechanism, evidence and a limitation before recommending a policy. The chapter’s reflection on page 227 returns to these trade-offs. For a P1-style explanation, show the intermediate operation. For P2-style preparation, compare what two sources support and synthesize a conditional answer; do not treat a single-source paragraph as a full Paper 2.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 225–227. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.

This final practice checkpoint samples one distinction; the chapter Form samples the taught sections more broadly. Use the original registered Week 7 quiz and source synthesis under their existing conditions. The added knowledge route is formative, with no new maximum or automatic IB grade. Students retain their first responses and refer to the receipt or local backup when correcting. At the next encounter, ask about a different organization’s sourcing decision without the table. If partial, identify the organizational boundary before discussing international effects. If unclear, return to an in-house versus contractor example.

Hodder 2022, printed pp. 226–227. Original teaching paraphrase; synthetic examples unless a source is named.