““The World Is Flat”The World Is Flat”Friedman’s Ten FlattenersFriedman’s Ten Flatteners

•Berlin wall falls 11/9/89, this opens world up to capitalist trade

• the world is now one big market

•Wall opened up world to trade- became all west

Flattener #2

: the first popular commercial browser to surf the internet

Brought the internet alive

and made it accessible

for everyone.

Increased the demand for

software, computers, and

networks to transport, words,

music, photos and data to

anyone else’s computer

• Shared standards are a huge flattener, because they both force and empower more people to communicate and innovate over much wider platforms

• In the late 1990s, the software industry began to respond to what its consumers wanted.

Work Flow Software

“Have your application talk to my application”

OMFG LETTERS

• LOL: Looking for Open

Labor

• BRB: Buy Resources across

Boarders

• Y2K: Year 2000 (where did

the K go?)

• GTG: Get Tactful Global

workers

“peer-reviewed science”

• Not out-sourcing, but companies can collaborate on projects and use multiple sources of intelligence

• “Two heads are better than one”• Free software movement, software is

shared• Flattens hierarchies, uses blogs as

information gatherers

Match on kerosene-soaked wood

• CBS new’s Dan Rather used blogs to expose fake documents about Bush’s Air National Guard Service

• “It was like throwing a match on kerosene-soaked wood. The ensuing blaze ripped through the media establishment as previously obscure bloggers managed to put the network of Murrow and Cronkite firmly on the defensive”

OFFSHORING

China joining the WTO took the world to a new level of offshoring

Offshoring is when a company takes one of its factories that it is operating in the United States and moves the whole factory offshore to China. When China first

opened its tightly closed economy, companies in industrialized countries saw it as an incredible new market for exports.

By joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China assured foreign companies that if they shifted factories offshore to China, they would be protected by international law and standard business practices.

Supply-Chaining

“Supply-chaining is a method of collaborating horizontally - among suppliers, retailers and customers - to create value” - Daniel Friedman

“What the Guys in Funny Brown Shorts

Are Really Doing”

• Huge force that’s flattening the world– “Not just delivering packages, they are doing logistics”

– Small businesses Large Businesses (vice versa)

• Toshiba= big business– Bad customer service--- deal is made with UPS

• UPS fixes the computers

• Send in computer, get it repaired the next day, and get it back on the third day

– UPS is doing this for all sorts of companies (Papa John’s, Nike etc.)

TOSHIBA

REPAIRS

The Ninth Force

• Search Engines– No discrimination

• In-forming– Self-collaboration

• Monitoring searches– Tivo

DigitalVirtualMobile

Personal

THE STEROIDSTHE STEROIDS

Help enhance theflattening of the

globe

SpeedComputer capabilityStorage capability

Input/output capacity

TransmittedVery high speeds

AnywhereAnyone

Any deviceBy you Wireless