Blog Assignment 6: Discuss the implication(s) of the notion of flat world for knowledge-based companies.

Blog Assignment 6: Discuss the implication(s) of the notion of flat world for knowledge-based companies. 

 Thomas Friedman makes good arguments that our world is shifting from being a "round" world to a "flat" world. I see a round world as a world separated by differences in terrain, cultures and the way we handle day-to-day life. In a flat world, we all share common practices, technologies and even ways we communicate. This idea of flattening has been happening since the 1400's according to Friedman. Starting in the first era 1.0 lasted from the 1400's to the 1800's. In this era, he states that by countries globalizing, we flattened the world from a Large to a Medium. Era 2.0 1800's to 2000. He theorizes that we've gone from a Medium to a Small. This shrinking happened through companies. I believe that communication and networking advances allowed companies to reach a global market, which has aided in flattening the global playing field. 

It is apparent that the flattening of the world can be credited to the networking technologies provided by Internet Service Providers and master-minds like Mark Zuckerberg. Friedman states that the world has been flattened through countries, then to businesses, next to people. If we think about how that was made possible, countries were able to globalize by the advances in transportation (flight, cars, buggies, ships, etc), then businesses were able to globalize in a .com environment, now individuals are globalizing by communicating with interfaces such as FaceBook, Skype, Fling, Qik, FaceTime, etc. There is no longer a separation of the world, as the barriers (physical and non-physical) have been torn down by new capabilities in technology and in transportation.  


I  would venture to say that the trillions of dollars spent on fiber optics should be compared to the transportation era that our country went through. Fiber optics attached countries to countries.....people to people....businesses to businesses. This fiber optics technology has opened channels and methods of communication that enable our world to become flattened and unified. I have to say that the idea that UPS is not only handling logistics, but is also in the business of distribution, order filling, IT systems repair sounds totally crazy. I've never heard that Nike has distribution centers managed by UPS staff. I've also never heard of Toshiba using UPS as a repair center. It's hard to believe, but I would definitely expect it in the global and fast-paced market we live in.

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