Module 1

Module 1 

  

In the first part of The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman he discusses globalization and explain how the world has flatten by explaining that American companies are outsourcing their jobs with European, Asian and also Indian Countries to save money.

Globalization 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 describes the different eras of how people and countries interact with each other. Globalization 1 .0 began around 1492 up to the year 1800 and the global interaction during that time was between governments and nations. Globalization 2.0 began around 1800 up to 2000 and global interaction was happening more and more in companies and large corporations. The majority of these were initiated by western based companies. Around the year 2000 as he explains came globalization 3.0, our era, when is not about the country or the companies but about the individual, we now have the ability to share information, work or talk from different computers all over the world. Friedman says, allows “individuals to collaborate and compete globally” in what he calls a flat world platform.

Friedman talks about 10 events that helped flatten the word, right now I will talk about two of them. One of them was the fall of the wall of Berlin  Friedman explains how this was a critical event and it opened up new ways of communication for everyone. Friedman explains that the wall was not only blocking our way but it was blocking our sight .With the fall of the wall of Berlin communism came to an end and the countries under that system were free to pursue other markets.

Another event is Netscape. They created the first web browser that was accessible to anyone with a computer from small to large business to small children Friedman mentions “once the browser brought the internet alive and made web pages sing and dance and display, everyone wanted everything digitalized as much as possible”. They made it very simple for people to use and also offered free trials of their software. He also mentioned the fiber optic cables as that are vital for the internet to function. The rise of the internet usage has helped flatten the world. 

Technology grows every day, and because of this the world will keep getting flatter. For example I come from a small island called Dominican Republic, even when walking through a poor neighborhood you can see people with phones that have internet or with computers, sharing and communicating with others.  People from anywhere in the world can communicate with other anytime. As I finish reading the pages for this assignment I can understand why Friedman states that the world is flat.