Module One: The World is Flat (pages ix-77 - Read until Flattener #3)

The title for the book by Thomas Friedman "The World is Flat", had me questioning what this reading will be.  I thought this was an IT class, not history.  Well consider my mind changed.

I began the reading with the introduction which turned my assumption of the book, to really ponder what the author is meaning through his title.  Classifying the different eras with Globalization gave me a different view of the past.  I do understand how our Globalization works today and we are in the early years of our very own 3.0.  What really is Globalization?  Looking at Globalization 1.0, we as a society, began to pave the future by laying down the foundation by besting one another through invention, creativity, greatness, power, as well as brawn and muscle.  This is what gave us or first taste of collaborating which led to Globalization 2.0.  In this second era we begin to turn from competition and begin to work together and from that build multinational companies.  These companies drove even further to improve the logistics of their business in reducing costs for labor and shipping to evolving into laying the ground work for 3.0.

In this reading, the author looks at the end of the 1990's as when 3.0 began.  We take globalization to a new level all the way down to the individual.  I can remember many years ago before computers were in the home, and when we had one it was confusing and I had no interest.  Except to play Indiana Jones, launched from a DOS command. Taking our globalization into this new digital age has pushed this century far beyond what we would have imagined.  No, we do not have flying cars, but our computers can talk to us and we can share our lives with each other from our own homes.

Friedman takes a next level look at our globalization with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  Comparing the beginning of the fall of communism with the beginning of our realization of collaboration.  Taking down the "Iron Curtain" and flattening communism and capitalism created a global affect on more than just German and Russia.  I really was able to capture the vision the Berlin Wall held with how Friedman describes looking through a hole in the wall.  Being able to see the future on the other side, to be able to open ourselves to each other and form a better world.  This vision is exactly what I believe the innovators of the technology had in mind.  Freedom.

With freedom comes a price.  This is an old saying, and looking into the view from the hole in the Berlin Wall, what price would come from this freedom?  The inventor of the World Wide Web had envisioned a collaboration of colleagues, a think tank that would be global and instant.  When the author takes us to the Ten forces that flattened the world, Netscape is considered one of these pivotal technological evolutions that affected our digital life.  Netscape created a connection for all the collaborations, it took the World Wide Web and removed the segregation by allowing everything to be viewed by anyone.  The fact that the company gave this to the people for FREE, launched the initial load of information and Websites to the internet.  This made it convenient, attractive, affordable, as well as made competitors cringe.

In conclusion, this is my first online class ever, as well as my first class back to school in 15 years!  I found the reading to be exciting as well as informative.  I did not really expect to be intrigued and to honestly identify with a text book for school.  I have been working in the IT industry for the last 14 years and have seen this collaboration globally and have seen it evolve.  More and more people around the world are stepping in to form a Follow the Sun model and provide services to everyone everywhere at anytime.