Thomas Friedman spoke at MIT
about his book The World is Flat.
In his speech he talked about the most important aspects and ways the world has become "flat". He mentioned the ways that made him think of writing his book. He tells us about instances where he became aware that he was speaking to people that were not in a corporate office, but in the comfort of their home or in another country all together. Thomas says that the first movement to entire globalization was what he calls Web 1.0. He describes the movement Web 1.0,"the world went from a size large to a size medium." During this point in time countries were going global. The next step was the wide spread use of the Internet, Netscape to be exact. This usage triggered the dot-com boom and that triggered the dot-com bubble, making fiber optic cables a must. Then around the year 2000, outsourcing, off-shoring, and global collaboration converged and made the world "flat". We then had the ability to reach other countries by means of the Internet. Mr. Friedman states many of the contributions that made the world "flat".
I learned from the video that if there is a will, there is a way. Thomas Friedman spoke about how countries that were "out of the game" got back in the game because of this globalization. They knew what kind of position they were in. They also knew that they needed something big to "get them back in the game". The introduction of the Netscape and outsourcing made this possible for them.
I am in the Globalization and Outsourcing
(6) group and the subgroup E. Throughout my research thus far, I have noticed that Y2K
plays a major role in the globalization of our world. When the year 2000 rolled around, the United States were in a bind with their hard-coded "19". India came to the rescue and fixed all the computers in time for the new year. This put India on the technological map. I have also learned that in years to come many major corporations will begin outsourcing
more and more of their jobs over seas.
Some questions I have about my topic include...
- What specific corporations are outsourcing what jobs?
- When can we expect the world to be completely globalized, if it isn't already?
- Can we be sure that all our jobs in America will not be outsourced?
To my teammates:
This is going to be a great project if we all work together. I am excited to see the results of our finished wiki. We have lots of things that still need to be completed, but I have faith that we will get it done. Good luck with your part of the wiki! Thanks for the help!