Weekly Post

I watched and listened to Thomas Friedman speak about his book, The World is Flat during a speech at MIT (http://mitworld.mit.edu/play/264/noreal/). He talked about the way he came across the name of the book. Being told "the global economic playing field is being leveled" and Friedman took this and came to realize he was being told the world was being flattened. That is how he came upon the name of the book.

He spoke about about globalization and how there have been three main era's. Globalization going through the country, the company and individuals. Right now we are going through the third, which is about individuals and small groups being able to make globalization. Globalization being the spread of culture, news, products, etc. The collaboration of people coming together is flattening the world as well as outsourcing and off shoring according to Friedman.

As he describes the different collaborations that flatten the world, such as outsourcing, collaborating, and off shoring, he describes these different things very well and how intricate everything is all the way down to UPS drivers. Each person has an affect on others and the products you buy are from corporations that are connected with others and the big name may not even have to even deal with the customers. I never thought of this before, when it is probably very true, but we tend to not think about these companies.

Friedman's speech is very good because he relates everything he says to the students he is speaking to the those listening. He uses examples that we as a society can understand. I enjoyed listening to his speech.