Miller's "The World is Flat" Reflective Blog Post

[Miller]

To get acquainted with the theme of the Flat Classroom project, the tenth grade class at Westwood Schools watched a video of a lecture of Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times. Mr Friedman spoke at an MIT meeting on November 28, 2007, about his new book, Green is the New Red, White, and Blue. Mr. Friedman is the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning series of The World is Flat novels. He started working at the New York times as a foreign affairs columnist is 1994 and began working for the Discovery Channel in 2004. Being the foreign affairs columnist, he had a great insight into the world of outsourcing or sending items of information to different countries to be processed. He said that the United States outsourced things like x-rays and tax returns to India. "The global economic playing field is being leveled, and you, Americans, are not ready," was a quote given by Thomas Friedman. In short terms, this quote means that the world is becoming flat, and everyone is being connected through technology.

Mr. Friedman also talked about the Globalization eras. Globalization is the world-wide economic interdependence of countries. The years of 1492-early 1800s was the time frame of Globalization 1.0. During this era, globalization occurred through countries. The years of the early 1800s-2000 was the time frame of Globalization 2.0. During this era, globalization occurred through business. The years of 2000-the present is the time frame of Globalization 3.0. During this era, globalization occurred through individuals. Another fact that Mr. Friedman talked about in his lecture was the idea of the four flatteners. These four flatteners helped flatten and continue to flatten the world. The first flattener was the P.C. The P.C. allowed individuals to author their own content in digital form. The process of going from regular manuscript to data in a computer is called Digitization. The second flattener was the date of August 9,1995. On this date, Netscape went public. Netscape itself was an extraordinary achievement, but the invention that it brought with it was even better. Netscape brought to life the browser, which in turn, brought the Internet to life. This IPO(initial public offering) started the .com boom. Netscape was priced at $28, but it opened at the stock market at $71. Because Netscape was so new and everyone wanted to be a part of it, the .com boom surged. Everyone bought stocks in Netscape which caused the .com bubble. The saying "What comes up must come down" comes into play in this situation. The .com bubble occurred because of the rise in stocks. In the .com bubble, the stocks of Netscape crashed and plummeted. With the rise of technology becoming more prominent, everyone's computers and software became the third flattener, work-flow software. That means that it became inter operable or able to work together. More people were able to collaborate for less money. This became possible because of the five trillion dollars that were invested into fiber optic cable in five years. The fourth flattener was the action of uploading. When the world is flat, individuals can take information from outside of the computer and upload it into the computer so they can share it globally. I also learned about Tim Berners-Lee. He worked the company CERN and created the W3C(world-wide web consortion ). The invention of W3C led to the invention of HTML(hyper text markup language). This language is used to embed things from one website onto another. Mr. Friedman also touched on the idea of open source networks. Open source networks allow people to collaborate together on one website. People can add their opinions to the work. Examples of open source networks are Wikipedia and Youtube.

The four flatteners will converge to create a platform. The platform is "going from vertical to horizontal, and is is going to change everything." The idea of going from vertical to horizontal means that it is going from an area where a certain number of people are involved to an area where everyone is involved. It is flattening the world. Mr. Friedman also laid down a set of rules for flattening the world. The first rule was "When the world is flat, whatever can be done will be done. The only question is, will it be done by you or to you?" In asking this question, Mr. Friedman ignited the flame of enthusiasm in people, challenging them to make the world flat themselves and not wait for someone to do it for them. The second rule that Mr. Friedman said was, "The most important economic competition will be between you and your own imagination. The meaning of this quote is simple. This quote means to use creativity in all of your projects and you will do them better than any other project that you use without creativity. The third rule is "how well will you horizontalize?" This is a measure of how well a person will adapt to the new flattened world. Mr. Friedman recalled a time when he learned how he was brought into the 21st century through Southwest Airlines. He learned how to interact horizontally by printing his bar code and boarding pass off his computer. By doing this he stepped foot onto the horizontal platform that had been laid down to flatten the world.

Mr. Thomas Friedman was an excellent speaker. He not only expressed his views about the changing world, but also made it fun to learn because of his humorous stories. I felt as if I could carry on a casual conversation with him. The most important idea that I took away from this video was the quotes, "When the world is flat, whatever can be done will be done" and "Will it be done by you or to you." These quotes really opened my eyes to the fact that the world is changing. As the world is changing, there will be a need for individuals to step up and lead the way. I want the change to be done by me not to me. Mr. Friedman's speech inspired me to make a difference and take a stand in helping to flatten the world.

I hope to obtain a great knowledge about the flattening of the world through the Flat Classroom project. I would like to learn what it takes to flatten the world, and the tools that I need to help flatten it. I am excited about getting to make videos about the topics that are contributing factors in the flattening of the world today. I am also eager to meet new people from different countries and get their views on the world and how it is becoming more technologically advanced. I am very excited about the Flat Classroom project. I am excited to start making a difference.

[Vicki Davis]

Excellent overview and synopsis of what Friedman covered. This is an excellent overview for those wanting to understand the history behind the World is Flat and an overview of the essential concepts.