The World Is Flat 3.0 Analysis.Doc

Introduction to Information Systems

Homework Assignment #2

November 14, 2012

Analysis of Thomas Friedman's “The World is Flat 3.0” video lecture @ MIT

​Between the months of March and December of 2007, New York Times author Thomas Friedman wrote what has been called anything from “dangerous...(due to Friedman's) arguments by assertion”1 to “more lively, provocative and sophisticated than the overwhelming bulk of foreign policy commentary these days.”2 In his The World is Flat, Friedman examines a brave, new world where globalization is no longer a term reserved for countries or corporations, but rather has now moved into a period in human history where the individual has “More equal ability to plug and play, to compete, connect and collaborate globally.”3

​This assertion forms the basis for Friedman's book. He breaks down globalization into three great eras: Globalizations 1.0 through 3.0. The first era was when human exploration was in its infancy – countries globalized through exploration and colonization. This lasted until roughly the early 1800s when the second great era began. This second era was characterized not by countries, but by companies globalizing through expansion and outsourcing. This leads us to Friedman's third (and current) era of globalization: the era of the individual.

​How did we get here? Friedman describes key moments or periods in human history where something or someone affected the course of individual globalization. These moments are referred to as “Flatteners”, i.e. they contributed to the paradigm shift from a vertically structured global economic system to a new, horizontal platform where individual consumers can all be “players” in the global economy. The three primary flatteners described by Friedman are:

1) The advent of the personal computer – This allowed for individuals to author content in digital form.

2) Netscape goes public on August 9, 1995 – The 1st public internet browser made the internet available to...