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Ten Flatteners

A previous post dealt somewhat with some concepts introduced in Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat. Here are the Ten Flatteners and some significant points:

  1. The New Age of Creativity: When the Walls Came Down (Berlin, Cold War) and the Windows Went Up (Windows 3.0)
    1. The end of the Cold War allowed the world to be viewed as a ‘whole.’
    2. PC’s made it possible for individuals to author, edit, modify content in digital form. Advances in communications allowed the dissemination of digital content in many new ways to many more people.
  2. The New Age of Connectivity: When the Web Went Around and Netscape Went Public
    1. the internet existed before the commercial web browser was created
    2. the web browser brought order and clarity to the chaos that was cyberspace. It is probably one of the most important inventions in modern history.
    3. people were really interested in information and didn’t have to know about computers and cables
    4. proprietary software was out, universal protocols were in as dictated by the consumers, not the tech companies
    5. vast sums of money were spent laying out fibre optic cables for internet access and data transmissions. The dot com bust placed many companies into receivership. Other companies from other countries bought these super highways at a bargain price eg. India.
  3. Work Flow Software
    1. Standards set, allowed content to be the focus, not the layout, necessary for business transactions
    2. It enabled more people in more places to design, display, manage, and collaborate on business data previously handled manually. Work started to flow within and between companies and continents faster than ever. eg. the creation of animation films: USA, Japan and Sth Korea
    3. AJAX (an evolved set of protocols) provides easy access to richer and more sophisticated Web-based tools that one can use to run a whole company - online - at very low cost.
    4. People not only could seamlessly be connected, but they could seamlessly work together on one another’s digital content. Hence, we have a crude foundation of a whole global platform for collaboration.
  4. Uploading: Harnessing the Power of Communities
    1. uploading to sites allows collaboration. More than ever, individuals can be producers, not just consumers
    2. Apache, PHP, MySQL are examples of open source community software that is industrial standard. It was developed for non-profit. It powers about 2/3’s of the Web sites in the world. Evolved to a ‘blended model’ with corporate partial funding.
    3. Linux, an open source operating system could find favour in the near future
    4. Companies that are able to create an end product that makes use of all these applications are the ones that will be successful. Re-inventing the wheel will not ensure a company’s future.
    5. The free software movement has become a challenge to Microsoft and others.
    6. Low cost laptops for the poor will consist of open source software. Just about any type of software can be found in open source.
    7. Community answers to specific problems
    8. Uploading News, commentary and blogging
      1. traditional news media are now trying to tap into the blogosphere
    9. Wikipedia: community up-loaded content
    10. architecture of participation
  5. Outsourcing
    1. India creates software much more cheaply than in Western countries. The software is of high quality and the programmers are University qualified. Indian programmers now tend to stay in India.
    2. Many multinational companies have facilities in India.
    3. Many book-keeping duties can be carried out in India courtesy of telecommunications.
    4. Ireland is another example of using knowledge workers
  6. Offshoring
    1. China: whole factories moved to China for manufacturing processes
      1. China became a member of the World Trade Organisation meaning that the same tariffs and same regulations applied to WTO members.
      2. China is racing for the top, not the bottom, hence, the examples of designing their own products.
  7. Supply-Chaining
    1. is a method of collaborating horizontally - among suppliers, retailers, and customers — to create value.
    2. the more supply chains grow and proliferate, the more they force the adoption of common standards between companies (so that every supply chain can interface with the next), the more they eliminate points of friction at borders, the more the efficiency of one company get adopted by others, and the more they encourage globalisation. eg. Wal-Mart handles 2.3 billion general merchandise cartons a year.
  8. Insourcing: a new form of collaboration and creating value horizontally.
    1. small businesses can act big
    2. small businesses saw where they could sell their goods, manufacture their goods or buy the raw materials but didn’t know how to or could not afford to manage a complex global supply chain.
    3. United Parcel Service (UPS): goes into each business and designs one’s global supply chain which UPS manages
    4. Many small businesses never touch their own products anymore. eg. Nike would rather design better tennis shoes, not supply chains.
    5. Requires unusual interactions between UPS and its clients. Based on trust.
  9. In-forming: Google, Yahoo, MSN Web Search
    1. never before have so many people - on their own - had the abilitity to find so much information
    2. it is the total equaliser (with computer access)
    3. in-forming is the ability to build and deploy your own personal supply chain- a supply chain of information, knowledge and entertainment
    4. it is about self-collaboration - becoming one’s own self directed, self-empowered researcher, editor and selector of entertainment.
    5. it is about seeking like-minded people
    6. the internet is growing in the self-services area
  10. The Steroids: Digital, Mobile, Personal and Virtual
    1. certain new technologies are amplifying and turbocharging all the flatteners
    2. computing: improvements and shrinkage in hardware and storage of data
    3. instant messaging, file sharing and peer-to-peer networks enabled any two people do interact. Each is getting more sophisticated.
    4. VOIP: making phone calls over the Internet - almost free
      1. SoIP: services over the Internet Protocol: video conferencing with more than two people
    5. video conferencing: will go to a new level: may create an effect of everyone sitting around a single conference table
    6. computer graphics: enhances video collaboration and computing generally by offering so many sharper images and so many more ways to illustrate and manipulate those images on screen
    7. new wireless technologies and devices: allows new forms of collaboration. They will allow us to manipulate, share, and shape our digital content from anywhere, with anyone, totally mobilely.
      1. RFID chips: will be used in Passports, Wal -Mart uses to identify crates. They automatically transmit information to suppliers’ computers upon arrival, allowing them to track inventory.
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