Timeline of Thomas Friedman’s Flatteners

The first three flatteners are considered by Friedman as the Genesis moment for the flattening of the world - the time when the flat world platform emerged. (p. 80) The last six flatteners embody the horizontal collaboration that emerged on the flat world platform created by the first three.

11/9/89

Flattener #1 - The Fall of the Berlin Wall

In his text Friedman names the fall of the Berlin wall as a flattener because he believes it started a “democracy domino affect” worldwide. It enabled us to see the world as a seamless whole (p.51), tap into each other’s knowledge pool and perhaps most importantly it paved the way to adopting standards. (p.52) With the advent of Windows Friedman notes that the walls had fallen and windows had opened resulting in a flatter world. (p. 54)

Flattener # 1 – My experience

A personal experience I had with the falling of the wall relates to my memory as a child of traveling into East Berlin. Once on a train in the middle of the night when it was stopped at the border and we all had to sit up in our bunks so the soldiers could shine their lights on our faces while looking at passports and once by vehicle through Check Point-Charley. I was terrified both times but am thankful my parents were determined that during the 6 years we lived in the Netherlands, we were going to see as much of Europe as we could. I was struck by the grayness of East Berlin, it was like entering another world. When the wall fell I was older and in Germany for the summer. A family we are friendly with there had relatives with them who used to live behind the wall. It was fascinating. A big discussion ensued about the fear West Germans had that all the East Berliners were going to swoop in and take their jobs.

I was working as a Programmer/Analyst for the coal-buying arm of Florida Power Corporation when the first version of Windows came out. I remember playing with it and not liking the loss of control you have with a DOS command line. What do you mean I just click on the icon and the OS does the work behind the scenes? What if it doesn’t work and I don’t know why because I cannot see what that icon is doing behind the scenes? A typical programmer’s response to needing control of the operating system (OS). I was in charge of the data communications for the company. The hardware and software included a PBX system, a MUX and several Hayes modems that were used to dial up to the coal companies in Kentucky and Tennessee to download data for the Operations department. My first foray into data communications that used a modem to convert analog signals into digital and back again, was in college. I did data entry for Winn Dixie and then would transfer the data from Sarasota to Tampa.

Following five years as a programmer/analyst I found my true niche teaching middle school kids about computers. We had Radio Shack Tandys the first year and then got IBM (bootable by floppy disk only – no hard drives) computers. Windows 3.0 came on the scene and I decided I needed to get over my control issue with those icons and join the rest of the world who loved icons! (My affinity for Linux is the control I can have again!)

11/8/89 – Present

Flattener # 10 – The Steroids

The steroids as Friedman refers to them are: Digital, Mobile, Personal, & Virtual. The steroids will increase the inherent ability of the other nine flatteners to empower individuals and companies to derive as much as possible from the advantages offered by a flat world.

Flattener #10 – My Experience

I began experiencing the steroids Friedman speaks of closely consistent with his date range. I have benefited from all of the steroids, from the conversion of the data I entered for Winn Dixie in 1984 from digital to analog as it traversed the phone lines, to being able to work from home developing wireless applications for handhelds in 2000. We used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect to the customer’s mainframe from several locations around the United States. The steroid use continues today as I download my kid’s choice of ring tones for my personal cell phone and investigate VoIP in an attempt to save money on our monthly phone bill. There will be times during this class that I will be out of town and will be relying on a wireless signal in an Internet Café somewhere to submit my assignments. It is fascinating to me – the empowerment provided by the steroids!

1991

Flattener #4 – Open-Sourcing

Friedman correctly defines groups of Open-Source developers as self-organizing collaborative communities. Peer reviewed science is another descriptor he uses. He explains that the two primary types of open-sourcing making it a flattener are intellectual commons and free software. The intellectual commons form of open-sourcing spread quickly and self-organizing collaborative communities sprang up in many areas. (p.93) Friedman stresses that open-source is an important flattener because it can challenge hierarchical structures with a horizontal model of innovation. (p. 102)

Flattener #4 – My Experience

My experience with open-source occurred later than Friedman’s 1991. Quite a bit later in fact. It was 2000 when I began writing programs for wireless devices using ColdFusion, ASP, XML and XSL. I became aware of software engines and other development tools available for free downloading. I was aware of Unix/Linux and had a great amount of respect for the GPL license and the developer’s insistence that software be available to all people free of charge. However, it was not until 2003 that I installed Linux and began to familiarize myself with it. Suddenly I had the control back over the OS that I had to give up when I started using the Windows GUI. Currently as part of the Internet Security curriculum, we have a Linux lab in my classroom and the students do all the labs using Windows as well as Linux. The same holds true for any labs involving Web servers. The kids use both Apache and Windows’ IIS.

My networking experience had evolved from Novell’s Netware to TCP/IP networks, both wired and wireless. Other than the security issues inherent with TCP/IP v4, I love the openness of TCP/IP. In fact, I love the open-source movement and though I see Microsoft’s point regarding innovation being driven by profit – I do not fully believe it! Ironically, Microsoft and Apple both obtained the original GUI from Xerox – and it didn’t cost them a dime!

08/09/95

Flattener #2 – When Netscape Went Public

Netscape further flattened the world by turning the PC into a tool for ordinary folks. A tool that sparked the Internet boom. The demand for things in digital format resulted in companies over-investing in the laying of fiber-optic cable. The fiber connected the world like never before. Just as important (in my opinion) was the commitment the Netscape owners had to ensuring that the protocols used on the Web remained open. Together the dot-com boom and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 launched the fiber-optic bubble. (p. 67) The fiber cable that provided global connectivity was a ‘permanent’ outcome of the dot-com boom despite the dot-com bust, and prepared the way for the next flattener.

Flattener # 2 – My Experience

My first recollection of Netscape is a friend of mine telling everyone that they needed to buy stock in the company. Earning a teacher’s salary in Florida, I did not have the funds to heed the advice. During this time I was still working for the school system but had been pulled from the classroom to try and make sense of a brand new Novell network that had been installed. The taxpayers in Manatee County, FL approved a one-cent sales tax to put technology in the schools. Knowing my background, my Principal asked me if I would be willing to get trained in Novell and be their network tech person. I jumped at the chance! Since leaving the computer industry for the classroom, so much had changed. I was being offered the opportunity to remain in a school setting yet play with all of this cool, new equipment and network operating system. I had so much to learn and very quickly realized this new Netscape browser could provide online resources for me. The Internet was only made available on some school PCs to start. The realization that it could be a powerful tool for students to use for research and fact-finding was not an accepted fact initially. The cost, the bandwidth, how to keep kids from sites that are inappropriate, etc., were all hindrances. Thankfully, only temporary hindrances!

1995 – Present

Flattener # 9 – In-forming

Friedman states “There is no bigger flattener than the idea of making all the world’s knowledge, or even just a big chunk of it, available to anyone and everyone, anytime, anywhere.” (p.153) He goes on to say that in-forming is the individual’s personal analog to open-sourcing, outsourcing, insourcing, supply-chaining and offshoring.(p.153) Being able to “inform” ones self empowers individuals and companies to take advantage of the other flatteners.

Flattener #9 – My Experience

Where do I begin with this one?! As the tools to inform me of information I needed became more reliable and easy to use I have become so dependent on them I do not know how I would function without them. Google, cell phones, Internet cafes for those traveling just to name a few, how do you put into words how they have changed the world? I do recall how bumpy the experience of doing things online was initially. In 1998 I became a banking online guinea pig for the bank of a friend of mine. They wanted people to try it out. I remember getting frustrated time and time again with purchasing things online. I would get all the way to the end and my 56K modem phone connection would be dropped. It was 2000 before I began to shop regularly online and I believe Amazon does it best. I am online a few times a day looking up information about one topic or another. Flattener #9 is one of the most important in my opinion, I would be lost without it! And like Friedman, I believe knowledge is the big equalizer among humans as well as countries.

1996 – Present

Flattener #8 – Insourcing

Friedman describes insourcing in terms of synchronizing your business’ supply chain, creating in effect a dynamic supply chain manager. Insourcing is another form of collaboration that creates value horizontally. (p.143) It allows big companies to act small and small companies to act big. I think it is especially beneficial for the smaller companies who without insourcing would not be able to be nearly as efficient with their supply chain.

Flattener #8 – My Experience

Allowing small companies to appear big comes closest to describing my personal experience with Flattener #8. It started for me in 2000 with the wireless company I speak of in Flattener #3 (below), Voyage Data Corporation. Voyage Data consisted of a group of programmers from around the country working out of their homes. If our customers had known how small we really were I am not sure they would have had the needed confidence to do business with us. To give ourselves a brick and mortar storefront for those times the customers were coming to town, we paired up (not a formal merge) with ASI Technologies in Sarasota, FL. ASI took care of our payroll, receivables and provided a conference room when we needed a place to hang our hat because the customer wanted to see us. We also borrowed their sales force on occasion and at one point a couple of their programmers, who were more Visual BASIC savvy than we were. (Our applications were not usually written in Visual BASIC.) What we gave them in return besides money, was wireless expertise. They were in the business of writing software for cruise ships and it sorely needed an update to today’s technology. In fact it was still DOS based in the year 2000 if you can believe that!

Mid to Late 1990’s

Flattener #3 – Work Flow Software

Following the wall-Windows-Netscape phase the world needed software written that would allow software applications to connect and communicate with other applications. More protocols allowing this type of server to server (both hardware and software) connectivity were needed. The development of XML (a metalanguage) and SOAP a transport protocol allowed this to occur. Common standards were, and still are the key.

Flattener #3 – My Experience

I mention moving from Novell’s Netware to TCP/IP under Flattener #4 (Open-Sourcing). In addition to TCP/IP and the openness/flow it enables, perhaps the best example I have personally regarding work flow software did not occur for me until 2000. Voyage Data, the company I worked for, developed software for wireless devices and specialized in wireless security. In order for Voyage’s group of programmers who were working from home all around the nation to work smoothly together, we used work flow software. An example is a product called SourceSafe. SourceSafe loaded on the company server in Sarasota, FL allowed us to check programs in and out, thus preventing one programmer from undoing or updating the same code at the same time as another programmer. It was an excellent way to see who was doing what, what still needed to be done and so on. We also used conferencing software and never needed to come together face-to-face with the exception of a conference once or twice a year such as CA World. (Computer Associates). I should mention we used XML which is itself a great contributor to the work flow software movement.

Y2K

Flattener #5 – Outsourcing

After the dot-com bust, the scarcity of capital and need to cut costs, coupled with the huge task of correcting potential software millennium bugs, outsourcing was put on the fast track. Though GE outsourced as early as the late 1980’s, it is when the world approached Y2K that outsourcing took off at an accelerated rate. People became aware of this new form of collaboration and horizontal value creation. (p.108)

Flattener #5 – My Experience

I have not experienced outsourcing the way Friedman describes it in a personal sense, i.e., I have not lost a job due to it. I have indirectly benefited however from companies needing help with the Y2K problem. A local bank in Sarasota outsourced their Y2K issues to me. I was home with my new baby and was picking up consulting jobs here and there. The bank allowed me to bring a couple of their servers home and go through each of their applications to determine what did and what did not need to be changed. So in a sense I suppose I was “outsourced” to rather than from. I remember thinking about the COBOL programs I had written right out of college for Tropicana. I knew, with a twinge of guilt, the code would blow up on the date rollover to 2000. I trust they went through their programs and hopefully mine had long since been rewritten. The date problem was not discussed in the 80’s – at least not there.

In 2000 I had moved back to Michigan and was developing wireless programs for Voyage Data Corporation based in Sarasota, FL. My boss lived in Atlanta and our biggest customer was in Pennsylvania. My daughter was still young and I appreciated very much the ability the flat world gave me to work from home. We worked closely with Computer Associates (CA) and I can remember more than once being blown away during a conference call by how smart the Indians were that CA had working for them.

12/11/2001

Flattener #6 – Offshoring

China joined the WTO on 12/11/01 opening the door for international law to regulate the rules of importing, exporting and foreign investing for global companies who wished to do business there. Friedman writes that the true flattening aspect of China and offshoring is the resulting competitive flattening. In other words, other countries will compete with China to become the recipients of businesses and companies who offshore. The standard will continue to be raised as these countries compete for global business.

Flattener #6 – My Experience

I do not have a personal experience to recount regarding this flattener. Other than conversations I have with my husband and others who work for companies who have satellite or subsidiaries overseas now. My husband’s company frequently sends four or five people at a time to China. My question for him (though it is not his decision) is why in today’s flat world they need to continue to spend that kind of money on travel costs when there are video conferencing tools, etc., available.

Early to Mid 2000

Flattener #7 – Supply-Chaining

Friedman defines supply-chaining as a method of collaborating horizontally – among suppliers, retailers, and customers – to create value. (p. 129) The more supply chains grow, the more they encourage common standards which allow more and more pieces of a company’s and even the world’s supply chains to work together. Points of friction at borders says Friedman, will be eliminated.

Flattener #7 – My Experience

I have only experienced supply-chaining indirectly. I have followed Wal-Mart’s march across the country and the world. I do not like Wal-Mart because they violate more than one principle I hold dear including their blatant disregard for the environment. Nonetheless, as an objective bystander, their use of supply chaining is pure genius and as Friedman’s book points out, it sprang from necessity. My husband’s company also has efficient supply-chains operating in their plants.