John Lehman

EDT646

Assignment #2

Organization of Flatteners

In the book “The World is Flat”, Friedman lists and describes the 10 “flatteners” of the world. He ordered them in his book based on the relationship to the rest. The first three “flatteners” he called the Genesis phase because he believed they helped to fuel the remaining 7 “flatteners” of the world. I would agree with this, however, I would most likely include Off-shoring in that category as well. The Off-shoring movement began in the late 70’s and picked up momentum in the 1980’s, even before the use of the Internet and other technologies was widely available. I feel this “flattener” would have occurred anyway.

Friedman’s “flatteners” were not necessarily ordered based on the earliest occurrence. The Open Source movement and Off-shoring occurred much earlier than the second “flattener” of the Internet Age. If I were to order the “flatteners” based on the first significant occurrence, I feel the order would look more like the following:

· #1 Information Revolution

· #4 Open Source Movement

· #3 Work Flow Software

· #6 Off-shoring

· #2 Internet Age

· #7 Wal-Mart / Supply Chaining

· #5 Outsourcing

· #9 Informing

· #8 In-sourcing

· #10 Gadgets and Steroids

The events that I have experience for each “flattener”, tends to fall in the middle or towards the end of each date range listed in Friedman’s book. This doesn’t surprise me due to my age and technology experience. It tends to be more toward the end of some of the “flatteners” because I work in the elementary level of education. Some of these “flatteners” are more geared toward the corporate world. Also, some of the forms of technology move into the world of education more slowly than it does in the business world, especially at the elementary level.

The remainder of this paper includes a sequence of events of the dates listed by Friedman in his book along with a comparison of similar events experienced by myself. I have also included a timeline of the events listed in Friedman’s book for each of the 10 “flatteners”.

Sequence of Events From Book		Sequence of My Events Experienced
1971- Intel 4004 developed - Hacker movement begins (early 70’s) - China’s market opened (late 70’s) 1981- PC introduction - Early e-mail and Internet 1983- Wal-Mart introduces point of sale terminals - China’s labor pool used for manufacturing items for exporting elsewhere (early 80’s) 1984- Open source movement started - Information Revolution begins (mid 80’s) 1987- Wal-Mart installs satellite for tracking - David Cook quietly builds Wal-Mart (88-2000), Companies using different systems, and GE & TI begin doing business in India (late 80’s) 1989- Berlin Wall walls 1990- Windows 3.0 comes out - Diffusion of PC and Apache developed (early 90’s) 1991- First Website - Internet growing (early 90’s) 1992- Opportunities growing in China / lacking managers 1994- Healthscribe business begins in India - Increased comp speed; Free soft/shareware (mid 90’s) 1995- UPS track-call centers, Netscape went public, Windows 95 introduced, and math formula created for searches 1996- Telecom deregulation, and UPS enters business of “synchronized Commerce Solutions” 1997- Global crossing cables, “New China managers” 1998- PayPal created, IBM incorporated Apache in webserver - File sharing, Invest in infrustructure, switch to web based standards (late 90’s 2000- Y2K, UPS synchronized business took off 2001- China joined WTO, Ford Mo. brought in UPS, and Wilkipedia started 2002- Japan exports high-tech to China, Wal-Mart begins to use RFID tags, E-Bay bought PayPal - VoIP, wireless, Dot Com bust, and Daimler-Chrysler makes 1^st Mercedes Benz in US (early 00’s) 2003- Wal-Mart model adopted in Japan, TiVO added search 2004- Google search for cell phones, Wild Brain 2005- Intel Pentium 4 and UPS orders now tracked online	1970 1980 1990 2000 2010	1969- I was born 1985- I first worked with computers in high school, began programming in Basic language 1987- Graduated high school, worked in bank using input terminals as teller 1989- Watched Berlin wall fall, family purchased first pre- windows PC for home 1993- Purchased first windows based multi-media computer and had early Internet access through CompuServe, graduated MSU, began teaching at KPS, first cell phone 1995- First experience with accessing shareware software - Dad lost first job due to corporate offshoring (mid 90’s) 1996- Increased computer speed and purchased new computer, first experience with windows 95 with school computers 1999- Increased computer speed and first experience with Windows 98 2000- First hand experience with Y2K preparations 2001- In depth Internet experience, created 1^st personal website - Aware of work flow software, no experience (early 00’s) 2002- Cell phone switched to digital 2004- Watched special on Wal-Mart distribution center, Internet switched to Broadband 2005- Laptop went wireless, received SMART board for my classroom. Aware of most “gadgets” from steroids section, but no first hand experience 2006- Insourcing not aware of until this course

Flattener #1 Information Revolution

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A B Cx D E F

A= PC introduction (1981)

B= Beginning E-mail and Internet (early 80’s)

C= Information Revolution, main reason for wall fall (mid 80’s)

D= Fall of Berlin Wall (1989)

E= Windows 3.0 (1990)

F= Diffusion of PC (late 80’s / early 90’s)

x= My first experience 1985

Flattener #2 Internet Age

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A x BCDE F

A= First website (1991)

B= Netscape went public (1995)

C= Windows released (late 95)

D= Telecom deregulation (1996)

E= Fiber optic global crossing (1997)

F= Invest in infrustructure (1997-1999)

x= My first experience (1993)

Flattener #3 Work Flow Software

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A-----A B C D E x F

A= Companies using different systems (late 80’s, early 90’s)

B= Netscape went public

C=Web-based standards (late 90’s)

D= PayPal created (1998)

E= E-Bay bought PayPal (2002)

F= Wild Brain production (2004)

x= My first experience/awareness (early 00’s)

Flattener #4 Open Source Movement

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A B C D---x---D E F

A= Hacker movement begins (early 70’s)

B= Open source movement started (1984)

C= Apache created (early 90’s)

D= Free software / shareware (mid 90’s)

E= IBM incorporated Apache in web server (1998)

F= Wilkipedia created (2001)

x= My first experience (1995)

Flattener #5 Outsourcing

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A---------A B C D x E

A= GE and TI began doing work in India (late 80’s, early 90’s)

B= Healthscribe services begins in India (1994)

C= Telecom deregulation (1996)

D= Y2K work and worries (1999)

E= Dot Com bust (early 00’s)

x= My first experience (late 90’s)

Flattener #6 Off-Shoring

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A B C x D E F G

A= China’s market opened (late 70’s)

B= China labor pool utilized for manufacturing to export elsewhere (early 80’s)

C=Opportunities in China, but lacking managers (1992-93)

D= “New China” managers (1997-99)

E= China joined WTO (2001)

F= Japan exported high tech machinery to China, pulls out of recession (early 00’s)

G= Daimler-Chrysler build 1^st Mercedes Benz in US (2003)

x= My first experience (mid 90’s)

Flattener #7 Wal-Mart / Supply Chaining

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A B C-----------------------------C D E x

A= Point of sale terminals installed (1983)

B= Installed satellite (1987)

C= David Cook quietly built Wal-Mart (1988-00)

D= RFID tags (2002-03)

E= Wal-Mart model adopted in Japan (2003)

x= My first experience (2004)

Flattener #8 In-sourcing

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A B C D E x

A= UPS tracked packages through call centers (1995)

B= UPS gets into business of “synchronized Commerce Solutions” (1996)

C= UPS business takes off (2000)

D= Ford Motor Co. brought in UPS (2001)

E= UPS orders now tracked online (now)

x= My first awareness (2006)

Flattener #9 Informing

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A B x C D

A= Internet growing (early 90’s)

B= Mathematical formula created for web searches (1995)

C= TiVO added search (late 2003)

D= Google search for cell phones begins (2004)

x= My first experience (2001)

Flattener #10 Steroids

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

A---------------A B C D E x

A= Computing size and speeds increase (1990’s)

B= File sharing (late 90’s)

C= VoIP (early 00’s)

D= Wireless (early 00’s)

E= Intel Pentium 4 (2005)

x= My first awareness / experience (2005)

My Experience with Flatteners 1-10

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

1-------1 2 4 6 5 9 3 7 10 8

#1= First experience with personal computers (1985)

#1= Watched the Berlin Wall come down, family had first pre-windows PC (1989)

#2= First Internet access with Compu-Serve (1993)

#3= Aware of work flow software, but no experience (early 00’s)

#4= First experience with shareware (1995)

#5= Aware of out-sourcing and watched dot-com rise, experienced Y2K (2000)

#6= Dad lost job due to corporate off-shoring (mid 90’s)

#7= Watched special on Wal-Mart distribution center (2004)

#8= In-sourcing not aware of until this course (2006)

#9= In-depth Internet experience and created 1^st personal website (2001)

#10= Aware of all the gadgets, but no first hand experience with most (2005)

#10= Received SMART Board for classroom (2005)