The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman 10 Forces That Flattened the World: Connected the Four Corners

#1 11/9/1989 The New Age of Creativity: When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up. Started that fall of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc Countries Left one economic system Looked at world as a single market

#2: 8/9/1995 The New Age of Connectivity: When the Web went Around and Netscape Went Public Internet as a tool of low cost global connectivity World Wide Web (www) where anyone could post digital information for anyone Spread of Commercial browser This all needed a common language HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) HTTP (Hybertext Transfer Protocol) At one point internet use was doubling every 53 days in the early 90s.

#2 Continued Netscape was the first public browser Made Internet accessible to everyone 15 days later Window 95 came out Still trouble connecting needed more of a standardized language FTP = moved files SSL = security SMTP = email POP = email TCP/IP = plumbing HTML = web pages HTTP = connect to HTML Dot Com Craze of that late 1990s Laid miles and miles of overseas cable Laid miles and miles of land cable Internet now connected with China, Asia, Europe, Etc. GOOGLE and YAHOO!!!

#3 Work Flow Software Needed to be able for Microsoft to talk to Novell or IBM Common Programming language SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) was used for email. Needed common language for internet and World Wide Web HTML- design, publish, documents, and data to be sent and be read on any computer HTTP- explained how to put information on the internet TCP/IP- (transmission control protocol/internet protocol) takes data from web pages around the internet. The internet, world wide web, and computer industries became standardized.

# 4 Uploading Harnessing the Power of Communities Open Source creation of software (these are downloadable for free) Example: Apache (web server) early ecommerce software which was community developed and bases for many web servers. Blogging is another example of uploading. Openoffice.org has free downloadable software that is community developed.

# 5: Outsourcing Y2K Dot Com craze (boom) had over investment in trans-ocean fiber optic cables America was linked to the world who was developed. Y2K was the bug and the world had the fix. India only country with enough computer engineers to handle the problem The internet and computers allowed India to solve our problems.

#6 Off Shoring: Running with Gazelles, Eating with Lions Outsourcing: taking some specific but limited, function that your own company doing in-house; such as research, call centers, or accounts receivable; and having another company perform that exact same function for you. Then reintegrating their work back into your overall operation or end product. Off-Shoring: when a company takes one of its factories that is operating in Canton, Ohio, and moves the whole factory offshore to Canton, China. Do the same work only cheaper Some is happening here in the US. Toyota Factor, Daimler Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz factories

#7 Supply Chaining: Eating Sushi in Arkansas -UPC- universal product codes Bar Scanners Wal-Mart system supply chaining: largest retail store in the world and makes nothing Supply chaining importance Access to best producer at the lowest prices anywhere Essential to both retail and manufactures Have to make part and deliver it cheaper than competitor Producer is not over producing one particular item

#7 Continued RFID-(radio frequency identification microchips) replaces bar codes Automatically identify the package or person Radio waves turned into digital information This is only on big items, too expensive for small packages During hurricanes people eat Pop-Tarts, and kids games with no batteries sell big. Wal-Mart orders more of these. Know this through supply chaining McDonald’s Theory: War? Dell Computer Theory

#8 Insourcing: What the Guys in the Funny Brown Shorts are Really Doing? UPS: (United Postal Services) is synchronizing global supply chains for companies both large and small. They don’t just deliver packages anymore (13.5 million a day) Example: Toshiba laptops are repaired by UPS they dispatch Papa John’s supply trucks and take shoes ordered from Nike.com come from a warehouse fun by UPS. In-sourcing allows small companies to act big. A company comes into yours, looks at it’s infrastructure and figures out how to make it more efficient by managing the infrastructure themselves.

#9 In-Forming: Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search Being able to look up so much information at once Sitting at home and learning about China. In-forming: the individual’s personal analog to upload, out-source, in-source, supply chain, and off-shore. The individual can act big

#9 EXAMPLE Google processes roughly 1 billion searches a day. Up from 150 million 3 years ago. TiVo, On-Demand movies are also examples. The information you get off the internet is The 9/11 attacks were well planned out with detailed information that was all gotten off of the internet through searches. The information can be used to further advancement or it can be used to slow or end advancement.

#10 The Steroids: Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual Broadband internet access. Can work on the internet anywhere anytime. Digital means things can be sent via computers, internet, satellites, or fiber optic cable. Turns hard copies into digital that can be sent over the internet Virtual means the process of shaping, manipulating, and transmitting digitized content can be done at high speeds and with ease. Mobile mean that thanks to wireless technology all of the above can be done from anywhere, with anyone through any device and taken anywhere. Personal means that it can be done by you, just for you, on your own device and uploaded to be shared by millions.

#10 Example You can be sitting in a lecture and when something is reference that you don’t think is right you can look it up on your laptop, PDA. Then ask questions of it to the speaker. Steroids are things that up the performance of a computer or any personal device. Processors, memory, instant messaging, file sharing, phone calls over the internet, video conferencing, computer graphics, wireless technologies and devices.

Thoughts??? This could lead the world to flatten more or be used to unflatten the world by closing the doors to openess. 11/9/89 compare to 9/11/01 Berlin Wall Falls: Coca Cola World Trade Center Towers Fall? Where is technology going to take us, and is there too far?