The World Is Flat Essay
BOOK REPORT: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is a bestselling book in which he examines an in depth analysis of globalization in today’s world. It is called the world if flat because it is actually a metaphor for looking at the world as a level playing field in terms of business where all of the competitors have equal opportunities. In this book, Friedman talks about ten different factors that play an important role in explaining why exactly the world is flat. The first of these “flatteners” was the collapse of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. He refers to this in the book with the statement, “When the walls came down, and the windows came up”. This event marked the end of the end of the Cold War, which in turn permitted people from the other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. This date in time also marked the fall of communism and the ever so great impact that Windows PC has had on individuals to be innovative and creative and connect with one another. It was during this time that the standard for all computer platforms was created. The standard included the following: IBM PC, Windows Operating System, a graphical interface for word processing, dial up modems, a standardized tool for communication, and a global phone network. The second “flattener” as stated in the book was “Netscape”. Netscape went public at a price of $28 dollars on August 9, 1995. Netscape and the World Wide Web made it possible for everyone to enjoy the Internet from kids to elderly people and not just computer geeks. The Internet and digitization made it possible for all types of media to be shared all across the world. The third “flattener” is called the Workflow software which he claims to be the “genesis moment of the flat world” because of the standards and technologies that allowed work to flow between people in an extremely seamless manner. The ability of machines being able to
Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is a bestselling book in which he examines an in depth analysis of globalization in today’s world. It is called the world if flat because it is actually a metaphor for looking at the world as a level playing field in terms of business where all of the competitors have equal opportunities. In this book, Friedman talks about ten different factors that play an important role in explaining why exactly the world is flat. The first of these “flatteners” was the collapse of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. He refers to this in the book with the statement, “When the walls came down, and the windows came up”. This event marked the end of the end of the Cold War, which in turn permitted people from the other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. This date in time also marked the fall of communism and the ever so great impact that Windows PC has had on individuals to be innovative and creative and connect with one another. It was during this time that the standard for all computer platforms was created. The standard included the following: IBM PC, Windows Operating System, a graphical interface for word processing, dial up modems, a standardized tool for communication, and a global phone network. The second “flattener” as stated in the book was “Netscape”. Netscape went public at a price of $28 dollars on August 9, 1995. Netscape and the World Wide Web made it possible for everyone to enjoy the Internet from kids to elderly people and not just computer geeks. The Internet and digitization made it possible for all types of media to be shared all across the world. The third “flattener” is called the Workflow software which he claims to be the “genesis moment of the flat world” because of the standards and technologies that allowed work to flow between people in an extremely seamless manner. The ability of machines being able to