Module 1

Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World Is Flat, brings to light how the world is changing today. In his book he explains how globalization is coming about. He tells of how companies can become more successful and how any job can in some way be outsourced. In his first chapter of his book he explains how he came upon this information, and also the three things have caused globalization to change and advance. He talks about companies outsources and thereby becoming global companies. In the second chapter he describes how the world came to be the way it is as far as globalization. He tells of his experiences and major historical events that have transpired. He tells of a business that successfully made the power of the World Wide Web accessible to every child and adult.  

Within the first 15 pages Friedman tells us of the three different eras of globalization, globalization 1.0, globalization 2.0, and globalization 3.0. Globalization 1.0 he describes as the time period of 1492-1800 he explains the world went from large too medium. This era he describes as the muscle and brawn era, your countries status in the world was based on how much power and ability to travel, and how usefully you could use that power. In this era new trade routes were formed, goods were more easily traded with farther away countries. Globalization 2.0 is 1800-2000, with the exceptions of the Great Depression and World 1 and 2. The world went from medium to small. The key change in this area is the beginning of multinational companies. This era also was the dawn of many of the inventions that bring about globalization 3.0. Such inventions as the steam engine, computers and personal computers, telephones and so on so forth. Which brings us to our last ear thus far globalizations 3.0, which is from 2000 on tell today. Brings the world from small to tiny. Friedman describes that in this year many business with have to find there place in this world’s economy system. The potential of the world’s current economy is amazing.

Friedman also talks about outsourcing in this first chapter the uses of it seem extremely beneficial to the business. This increases the work force of the company and opens up your employees back at home base to maintain more face time with customers, more time for customer service, more time for sells, increases everyone’s productivity. He also mentions a position called “remote executive assistant.” The person in this position helps you with research for a project can do your PowerPoints. The best part is with the time difference it’s almost like you go to bed with all this work to do and you wake up and it’s all done. The assistant will e-mail you all the research and work they did. How nice would that be? Outsourcing seems like a excellent way to cut costs and increase productivity. How was all of this able to happen now and not during the globalization 2.0 era though?

            November 9, 1989, the day that the Berlin Wall fell. This wall falling tipped the scales of the world. With the Berlin Wall down governments were able to change/revolutionize. Countries were able to build from the ground up. Information was able to flow more freely. It effected the whole world. Nations were able to reestablish themselves. In India alone increased its growth by over 100% in three years. “The fall of the Berlin Wall didn’t just flatten the alternatives to free-market capitalism and unlock enormous pent-up energies for hundreds of millions of people in places like India, Brazil, China, and the former Soviet Empire. It also allowed us to thik about the world differently-to see it as more of seamless whole.”(Friedman.) The fall of the Berlin Wall allowed for companies to start to grow to multinational companies to employ people from all over the world.

            Companies being able to grow so much more now needed a way to connect to each other. The World Wide Web was created a way for companies to be able to link pictures, research, videos, so you could show them to anyone. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. With people being able to create links to different pages of their research, it was mostly used by scientists. Until Netscape, Netscape created a browser that gave anyone with a PC the power of knowledge at their fingertips, Netscape revolutionized the WWW. Making it possible for anyone to gain access to information they needed. Unfortunately we also learn another lesson from Netscape, you have to be able to keep up with your competitors if you plan to keep afloat. Netscape was bought out by AOL. Netscape did connect everything, It took everything on the web from anywhere in the world and it connected it all together and made it easier to find what you were looking for. A big part to play in leveling the playing field of the world and flatten the world.