Transcript The World is Flat A Brief History of the Twenty

THE WORLD IS FLAT
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.
BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas L. Friedman. Friedman was born in St.
Louis Park, Minnesota on July 20, 1954.
 Some of his journalistic interests include
globalization, terrorism, wars, and climate change.
 He wrote this book in 2005 and re-released an
updated version in 2006 and again in 2007.
 The premise of this book focuses on the
globalization and the affects of technology and
society

PREMISE OF BOOK

There are 10 Flatteners
 The
term “Flatteners” refer to and innovation or
event that on a global level brought the world down
to a more equal playing field.
 Triple Convergence
 the
notion that all of the ten global flatteners united with
three additional workings to create an even more flat
world with a even more equal playing field
FLATTENER #1

11/09/89- The New Age of Creativity: When the
Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up.
 On
November 9, 1989, The Berlin Wall came down
and with that came the end of the Cold War and
Communism.
 The Cold War had been a struggle between two
economic systems: Capitalism and Communism.
 With
the Fall of the wall, is was clear that Capitalism
came out on top. People had to rearrange themselves
around this accordingly.
FLATTENER #1

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall:
 Steve
Jobs and Steve Wozniak released the Apple II
home computer in 1977.
 1981 the first IBM PC was released.
 The first Windows OS was released in 1985
 The break thought operation system which made
IBM PC’s most user friendly –Windows 3.0 - was
shipped out on May 22, 1990.
 Only
six months after the wall came down.
FLATTENER #1
The rise of the Windows-enabled PC in
combination with the fall of the wall set into
motion the entire flattening process.
 People were able to create their own work in
digital form.
 “Think about what one person can do with a
pen and paper. Think about what one person
can do with a typewriter. And then think about
what one person can now do with a PC.”

FLATTENER #2

08/09/95- The New Age of Connectivity: When
the Web went Around and Netscape went
Public.
 The
World Wide Web was created by British
computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee , while he was
consulting for CERN- The European Organization
for Nuclear Research in Switzerland.
 He
released the first website ever on August 6th, 1991. (
http://info.cern.ch )
FLATTENER #2
The tiny start up company in Mountain View,
California called Netscape went public on
 Netscape was a huge flattening force for
several reasons:

 Anyone
age 5 to 95 was able to access the internet
 Windows 95- the one OS used by the most people
world wide, was equipped with built in internet
support do that not just browsers, but all PC
applications could “know about the internet: and
interact with it.
FLATTENER #2

Netscape did not participate in the dot-com
bubble, they started the dot-com bubble.
 Everybody

wanted everything digitized.
Internet Stock Boom
 It
sparked a HUGE overinvestment in fibre-optic
cable companies, which then laid massive amounts
of fibre-optic cable on land and under the ocean
which dramatically drove down the cost of making a
phone call or transmitting data anywhere in the
world.
FLATTENER #3

Work Flow Software
 The
walls went down, and then the PC and
Netscape browser enabled people to connect with
other people as never before.
 Windows-enabled PC gave everyone in the office
the ability to create, and manipulate digital content,
words, data, and pictures.
 Work
was able to flow seamlessly
FLATTENER #3

Standards on top of standards
 HTML,
HTTP, TCP/IP, XML, and SOAP were adopted
as standards
 People
start focusing on the quality of what they are
doing instead of how they are doing things.
 eBay
 The
standard method of payment is PayPal.
FLATTENER #3

Work flow Software allows for the a boss to be
somewhere, and his employees be someplace
else.
 You
can create virtual global offices worldwide,
which can operate 24/7/365.
FLATTENER #4

Uploading

Friedman quoted an Essay entitled “We Are the Web”
featured in Wired Magazine in August, 2005 written by
Kevin Kelly.
 “the
bandwidth on cable and phone lines was asymmetrical:
download rates far exceeded the upload rates. The dogma of
the age held that ordinary people had not need to upload;
they were consumers not producers. Fast forward to today,
the poster child of the new internet regime is BitTorrent. Our
communication infrastructure has taken only the first step on
the great shift from audience to participants, but is where it
will go in the next decade”
FLATTENER #4

Community-Developed Software
 The
community-developed software movement,
also known as the ‘open-source’ community,
derives its identity from the notion that companies
should make available online the source.
FLATTENER #4

Community-Developed Answers

In 2004, Brain Behlendorf started the communitydeveloped innovation called CollabNet.
 People
can post their software and there defects that need
to be addressed on a secure website, and members can
examine the defect and see if they are able to solve it.
 Rob McEwen, Chairman and CEO of Goldcorp. Inc. Based in
Toronto.


In 1996 Red lake was producing 53 000 ounces @ 360 an ounce
By 2001, the mine was producing 504,000 ounces @59 an ounce.
FLATTENER #4

Wikipedia
 Online
encyclopaedia known as “the people’s
encyclopaedia”
 Wikipedia
works by consensus, with users adding and
modifying content while trying to reach common ground
along the way.
 John Seigenthaler Sr.
 The comparison of gossip and a feather pillow:

“If I tear this open, the feathers will fly to the four winds, and I
could never get them back in the pillow. That’s how it is when
you spread mean things about other people”
FLATTENER #5

Y2K
 The
people of India solved the problem of Y2K
because all the work to solve this problem was
outsourced there.
 India had benefitted the most from the over
abundance of fibre-optics.
 HealthScribe- India

A company that paid Housewives and students of Bangalore to
transcribe doctors notes.
FLATTENER #5



The Y2K computer readjustment was done mostly by
low-skilled Indian programmers fresh from tech school.
When US companies began to realize how much of a
problem this Y2K this was, they started to employ IT
specialists in India to solve this problem for them. It was
much cheaper for companies to pay specialist in India,
then to hire specialists in the US.
Many believe that the Y2K was the start of the
Interdependence Of India, because they were able to
collaborate with Western companies thanks to the
interdependence of created by fibre-optics.
FLATTENER #6

Offshoring
 China
formally joined the World Trade Organization,
which meant they were going to following the same
global rules of import, exports, and foreign
investment that the countries of the rest of the
world followed.
 Offshoring is much bigger then Outsourcing
FLATTENER #7

Supply Chaining
 Wal-Mart
 Bentonville,
Arkansas is home to the 1.2-million square
foot distribution center.
 24 hours a day, 7 days a week the 12 miles of conveyer
belts are constantly streaming thousands of boxes
holding everyday product you purchase at Wal-Mart.
 4000 HP computers are sold throughout the 4000 WalMart stores a day during the Christmas season
FLATTENER #7

Dell has a customer for every computer before
it is manufactured.
 Dell
might get stuck with parts that do not get used
but they will never get stuck with computers that
will not get sold.

Wal-Mart is the latest supply chain innovation
has introduced RFID- radio frequency
identification microchips
FLATTENER #7
Wal-Mart is the China of companies
 If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it
would rank as China’s eighth-biggest trading
partner

FLATTENER #8

Insourcing
 What
are those guys in the brown shorts really
doing?
 UPS:
United Parcel Service
These guys do more then you think. They are not just delivering
packages, they are doing logistics.
 Contracted to fix your Toshiba Computers.
 Papa John’s pizza
 Nike
 HP
 eBay &PayPal

FLATTENER #9

In-Forming
 Google,
Yahoo! , MSN Web Search (Bing)
 The
know what people are searching for.
 Everyone has access to the same information

Informing is the ability to build and deploy your
own personal supply chain- a supply chain of
information, knowledge, and entertainment.
FLATTENER #9

TiVo

Allows viewers to digitally record their favourite
programs, and allows them to skip ads, or boring parts.
 Just
like Google knows what you are searching for. TiVo knows
which ads you freeze, which parts you fast forward through,
and which parts you rewind


Google SMS


Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.
Text you search Query to 466453 and Google
Yahoo! Groups

Support groups for parents, or similar interest groups.
FLATTENER #9

“Google is like God. God is wireless, God is
everywhere, and God sees everything. Any
questions in the world, you would ask Google.”
FLATTENER #10

The Steroids

Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual


This flatteners includes the technologic advances like iPods, cell
phones, smart phones, PDA’s, IM’s, VoIP.
Computing

Composed of three components

Computational capability



Storage capability



1971 Intel 4004 microprocessor produced 60 000 instructions per second w/
2,300 transistors.
2004 Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition (w/ two core) produces a
theoretical 20 billion instructions per second w/ 1.7 billion transistors
Hard drive space is always increasing
Advances in fiber-optics will someday allow for a single fibre to transmit over a
terabit of data per second.
Input/output capability
FLATTENER #10

Instant Messaging and File Sharing.

Allows computer users to share songs, videos, and
other digital files online.
 Napster


Went from zero to 60 millions visitors in a year.
VoIP and Skype

Internet Based Phone Calls.
 You
can keep in contact with friends and family all over the
world
 The competition will be such that telecom companies will not
be able to charge you for time and distance of calls, because
voice will be free.
FLATTENER #10

Video Conferencing

The advancement of video conferencing thanks to
DreamWorks and HP.
 Virtual

Boardroom
Advances in Computer Graphics

Graphics in Computer Games.
Makes interacting with a computer a more enjoyable experience

New Wireless Technology

With WiFi, PDA’s, and Smart phones, people can walk
around with the internet in their back pocket.
 Japan
has internet access everywhere
TRIPLE CONVERGENCE

First Convergence

All this great technological advancements were all their
own independent machine.
 Fax

Machine, Scanner, Photocopier, Printer
What if we were to combine all of these innovations into
one machine!?
 The
ability for one of these flatteners to enhance the ability of
another flattener to advance


Flattens out the playing field even more
iPhone
 Cell

phone, iPod, Internet, Thousands of apps.
They can almost do anything.
TRIPLE CONVERGENCE

Second Convergence

Because of the development and advancement of the
ten flatteners, methods and business models had to
change and adapt to the ways of society in order to
succeed and make a profit
 The
flatteners alone were not enough to make more profit.
 The flatteners must be unite together to guarantee success
 Horizontalization:

Companies and people collaborate with other departments or
companies to add value to a creation or innovation.
TRIPLE CONVERGENCE

Third Convergence
 After
the Berlin Wall came down:
 Countries
which followed the soviet economic model
(India, Russia, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and
Central Asia) slowly opened their economies to the rest
of the world.
 These new players converged with the rest of the
globalized marketplace, they added new brain power to
the whole playing field and enhance the entire concept of
horizontalization.

Important in shaping politics and economics
IN CONCLUSION

How does this effect the future.

In a flat world, there is no such thing as an American job.


Competitions for good jobs is going to get tough, and
especially when everyone is equally qualified to do a job.


A constant need for re-training, upgrading and advancing our
educations.
There is just a job, and in most cases than ever before it will go to
the best, smartest, most productive or cheapest worker.
It does not matter what industry you work in, you will always
be replaceable,

There will always be someone who will be able to do your job better
then you, or the that that a new technical advance will come along
rendering you obsolete.
QUESTIONS?