The 21st century is a time unlike any before it, for we are now all connected throughout the world in one way or another. An individual can pick up this small 6.7 square inch piece of plastic, place their thumb on a button to unlock it, tap digit buttons displayed on the screen, and talk to someone on the other side of the globe. This level of communication is not just restricted to phones, but can also be done through computers, iPods, and tablets, and not just audio, but visual as well. The world is now connected communicably through the touch of a button; nonetheless if you look closer, it is actually much more. The world’s economies are currently connected through trade agreements, the process of outsourcing manufacturing, and also politically
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People are connected on a previously unimaginable level, and problems are no longer strictly solved “in house.” For example, Friedman talks about the Y2K problem and how, “thousands of Indian engineers were enlisted to fix the Y2K - the year 2000 – computer bug for companies from all over the world… The fact that Y2K work could be outsourced to Indians was made possible by the first two flatteners, along with a third.”1 The processes of flattening he is talking about started with the creation Microsoft Windows 3.0 around November 9th, 1989, which is the day that the Berlin Wall collapsed and the thought of the Cold War finally ending began. Then there was August 9, 1995, when Netscape went public for the first time and there was a major boom of “global undersea-underground fiber network, (which dropped the cost of transmitting voices, data and images to practically zero, [and] turned Boston, Bangalore, and Beijing into next-door neighbors over night.)”1 This new connection allowed countries, for example India, to now become involved first hand in world issues. The last flattening, which is represented by the fixing of the Y2K problem, is workflow; now work could be outsourced easily to anywhere around the world which meant companies are not restricted to workers in their immediate area. This can be a very scary realization, however we will touch on that later. For now, let’s look at why globalization is the
People are connected on a previously unimaginable level, and problems are no longer strictly solved “in house.” For example, Friedman talks about the Y2K problem and how, “thousands of Indian engineers were enlisted to fix the Y2K - the year 2000 – computer bug for companies from all over the world… The fact that Y2K work could be outsourced to Indians was made possible by the first two flatteners, along with a third.”1 The processes of flattening he is talking about started with the creation Microsoft Windows 3.0 around November 9th, 1989, which is the day that the Berlin Wall collapsed and the thought of the Cold War finally ending began. Then there was August 9, 1995, when Netscape went public for the first time and there was a major boom of “global undersea-underground fiber network, (which dropped the cost of transmitting voices, data and images to practically zero, [and] turned Boston, Bangalore, and Beijing into next-door neighbors over night.)”1 This new connection allowed countries, for example India, to now become involved first hand in world issues. The last flattening, which is represented by the fixing of the Y2K problem, is workflow; now work could be outsourced easily to anywhere around the world which meant companies are not restricted to workers in their immediate area. This can be a very scary realization, however we will touch on that later. For now, let’s look at why globalization is the