The World is Flat
The excerpt below came from an introduction to a talk that Thomas L. Friedman gave at MIT. His books in general are incredible and this one specifically is a must read for everyone in or entering the work place today. In a concise and very readable way he explains much about the modern world-wide work force and how it impact each and every one of us…
In his latest book, The World is Flat, Friedman describes the unplanned cascade of technological and social shifts that effectively leveled the economic world, and “accidentally made Beijing, Bangalore and Bethesda next-door neighbors.� Today, “individuals and small groups of every color of the rainbow will be able to plug and play.� Friedman’s list of “flatteners� includes the fall of the Berlin Wall; the rise of Netscape and the dotcom boom that led to a trillion dollar investment in fiber optic cable; the emergence of common software platforms and open source code enabling global collaboration; and the rise of outsourcing, offshoring, supply chaining and insourcing.
Friedman even has a chapter on open source – relating back to what I do for a living!
