The document discusses Thomas Friedman's book "The World is Flat" which analyzes the history of globalization. It describes globalization occurring in three eras, with the third era from 2000 to present being defined by connectivity and software enabling more individuals to collaborate globally. This flattens the world by shrinking it and allowing more diverse people to plug in and compete internationally. Two major flattening forces are described - the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 which led to the rise of personal computers and the internet's launch in 1995, which together created a "Flat World Platform" enabling people anywhere to work together digitally.

1. The world is flat
by Thomas Friedman

2. • 1st book was published on April 2005

3. How the world became flat?

4. The Three Eras of
Globalization
Era Year / Dynamic Force / Key
Agent of Change
Primary Question of
the Era
Size of the world
(Effect of the Globalization)
Globalization 1.0
1492 (Columbus set
sail) to 1800
How brawn, how much
muscle, horsepower,
wind power, or steam
power
- Where does my country
fit into global competition
and opportunities?
- How can I go global and
collaborate with others
through my country?
from size large to size
medium
Globalization 2.0 1800 to 2000
Breakthroughs in
hardwares
- Where does my
company fit into the
global economy?
- How does it take
advantage of the
opportunities?
from size medium to
size small
Globalization 3.0 2000 to present
Connectivity and
softwares
- Where do I as an
individual, fit into the
global competition and
opportunities of the day,
and how can I, on my
own, collaborate with
others globally?
from size small to size
tiny and flattening the
playing field at the
same time

5. Globalization 1.0
Globalization 2.0
Globalization 3.0
Countries globalizing
Companies globalizing
Individuals to collaborate
and compete globally
the driving force to
the driving force to

6. Globalization 1.0
1492 – Columbus set sail, opening trade
between the old world and the new
world
• This era is about countries and
muscles

7. Globalization 2.0
Interrupted by
The Great depression
World I and II

8. Driving Force
Multinational companies
went global for markets and
labors
Spearheaded first by the
expansion of the Dutch and
English joint-stock companies
and the industrial revolution

9. 1st half of the Era
Transportation costs : steam engine,
railroad

10. 2nd Half of the Era
• Telecommunication costs (telegraphs, telephones, PC, satellites,
fiber-optic cables, early versions of World Wide Web
• Seen the maturation of global economy

11. Globalization 3.0 / New Era
• Flattening and shrinking the world
• More driven not only by individuals but also by a much more
diverse, non-western, non-white group of individuals
• All individuals around the world are being empowered
• Makes it possible for so many more people to plug in and play
European and American individuals and businesses drives primarily the
globalization (though China actually had the biggest economy in the
world in the 21st century)

12. “Flat – World Platform”
• Is the product of a convergence of the personal
computer, with fiber-optic cable, with the rise of work
flow software (which enabled individuals all over the
world to collaborate on the same digital content from
anywhere, regardless of the distances between them)
• Individuals compete / collaborate with individuals

13. • The world has changed in profound and unsettling ways
• The flattening happens at warp speed and directly or
indirectly touching a lot more people on the planet at
once (compound to the discovery of printing process)

14. HOW THE WORLD BECAME
FLAT
THE TEN FORCES THAT FLATTENED THE WORLD

15. Flattener #1: The New Age of Creativity
11/9/89
• When the Walls came down and the Windows went up
• The Fall of Berlin Wall
• Tipped the balance of power across the word toward those
advocating democratic, consensual, free-market-oriented
governance

16. Cold War – struggle between capitalism and communism
lead to the European union
advent of Euro
Apple II – Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak (1977)
IBM PC (1981)
Windows (1985)
Windows 3.0 – shipped on May 22, 1990 (6 months after the
wall went down)

17. men and women author their own content right
from their desktop to digital form
• Break barrier (not just geographically, but also economically
• China and India also started to open their economy
Productivity demands faxes, PCs, modems

18. Flattener #2 : The Age of Connectivity
8 / 9 / 95
• Internet and World Wide Web

19. Internet
• Network of networks
• Basically made up of computers and cables
• Invented by Vint Cerf & Bob Khan
• Figure out how this could be used to send around little “packets” of information
• ELECTRONIC MEAL

20. World Wide Web
• a system for creating, organizing, and linking documents so they
could easily browse over the Internet
• Developed by British computer scientist, Tim Berners Lee