Ten Flatteners

Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat is a great read. The man (a former Minnesotan too) has a gift for taking complex subjects and making them perfectly lucid for the average person.

Friedman argues that our world has gone through three eras of globalization, each shrinking the world in size. Globalization 1.0 was when Columbus discovered the new world, and he shrunk the world to a size medium. People went global through their countries.

Globalization 2.0 was when in the early 1800s up until 2000. Companies working across the globe shrunk it to a size small. People went global through their companies.

Globalization 3.0 just happened. Fiber optic cables, telecommunication satellites, and personal computers hooked up to the world wide web shrunk the world to a size extra small. People went global on their own.

Now, Friedman chronicles how ten forces/events led to our modern 'flat' world --

1. 11/9/89. The fall of the Iron Curtain. Or as Friedman calls it - The New Age of Creativity: When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up.

Simply put, this was the end of communism. East meets West. People were free to move and interact and exchange ideas and culture (and goods - don't forget this was great for capitalism). Plus, it allowed us to really see inside the Iron Curtain and to see how poorly off our supposed enemies during the Cold War really had it.

But even better, you had the PC revolution sweeping through where any person with a computer could now share their ideas. The wall was intended to keep ideas in. How can you do that when everyone has access to a PC and the ability to share their ideas? Just look at how China is attempting to censor Google now.

The wall coming down allowed new ideas to spread and be shared. Or as Friedman notes - "Think of what one person can do with a typewriter. And then think of what one person can do with a PC."

As one who has angered various parties over this very blog, I can certainly attest to that!

2. 8/9/95. Here comes the net and the World Wide Web (they are NOT the same thing). Or The New Age of Connectivity: When the Web Went Around and Netscape Went Public.

Simply put - The Net is a bunch of cables connecting computers and servers. The World Wide Web, invented by Berners-Lee, is a global hypertext system that allows a person at a computer to use the net to share documents, sounds, videos and information.

That's all fine and dandy, but it really wasn't until the company Netscape created the first internet browser (an application that allowed computers to easily access the web and surf it) that the internet began to take off and revolutionize the entire world.

I try to think of it like this - until the Interstates were constructed - one could navigate their way around the country, but it was cumbersome, terribly inefficient, and not for the feint of heart. However, once the Interstates were in place, suddenly traffic could flow easily. Anyone with a map and decent vehicle could easily traverse the country.

Netscape's browser (which was the first way I surfed the internet all the way back in 1996) made it possible for anyone - whether a child or grandparent - to get on a computer and use the internet.

And think of it, how often do we not use the internet? Suddenly, we can find the answer to anything. Suddenly, we have an unimaginable amount of information at our fingertips. Suddenly, we have the ability to interact with others. Suddenly, we can upload pictures, music, and videos and share it with anyone. Mostly for free. When in the history of our world has that ever been possible?

3. Work Flow Software

This simply means that software became relatively universal. We forget what it was like in the old 80's and early 90's when computers didn't connect. Friedman notes that you might work in a company and the accounting department works with one set of computers designed to crunch numbers. However, those computers and their software couldn't connect with the computers in HR, who needed a different computer and software for their specific tasks. Of course, neither of those computers worked with the computers and software employees had at home, which varied with each employee.

But that doesn't happen now. The fact that any of you reading this - whether at home, school, a university, or on your phone - is an example of work flow software. Regardless of your Mac, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, iPhone, or BlackBerry, you can still navigate your way to teacherscribe - even if you're using safari, firefox, or explorer. If I include a link to iTunes, you can click on it and - again regardless of your computer - arrive at the iTunes store. If I embed a video from youtube, the same will happen.

But that was unimaginable 20 years ago. When computers and their software began to connect, suddenly work could 'flow' at an incredible speed.

Here's a great example from Friedman's book - he interviews the head of a cartoon production company. The man explains how the make something from nothing thanks to their work flow software. The cartoon is called Higglytown Heroes. But it doesn't reside in one specific place. The recording session is done close to the artists (usually NY or LA). However, the writers do their work from their homes (Florida, London, NY, Chicago, and LA). The animation is done in Bangalore, India. The animation is then edited in San Francisco. Actors record their voices over the internet. And then the show is assembled.

Amazing, isn't it?

On a personal level, this software flow happened first semester when I was home with a sick daughter. While she napped, I basically taught and ran my class from our dinning room table and my MacBook. I emailed my lesson plans to a colleague. Students texted and emailed me questions. And I answered each one individually. Finally, when I couldn't get an issue straightened out, I called a student. He turned his phone up, put me on speaker phone, and set the phone down on his desk and we had ourselves a bit of a 'conference call' with me explaining things and then taking questions. The sub just had to make sure the kids stayed in the room. That's how efficient work can flow in a flattened world.

4. Uploading - Harnessing the Power of Communities.

The internet allows people to connect and upload information like never before. Two quick examples - blogs and wikis.

A blog, simply a 'weblog' allows people like me to upload their ideas and opinions to the net for all to read. Furthermore, it allows me to share music, video, and pictures. Anyone can partake in this. For free.

Suddenly, people began uploading their content to the web. This allowed for an immense amount of sharing and interacting and learning. Suddenly, I can read a blog from a teacher in another country or chronicle the ups and downs of a student teacher in Washington, DC.

Family members can keep in touch and share content for free. Remember that not that long ago before cell phones, long distance rates were as high as $2 for a minute. Now that's unimaginable.

Again, we take this for granted today. But how soon we forget what life was like 25 years ago when none of this existed.

Wikipedia is the best example of a wiki. People everywhere can log on and upload their knowledge. Now, some of the info is bogus. But a lot of it is up to date (when the bridge collapsed in the cities a few years ago, Wikipedia had the first story and the most credible information thanks to witnesses who logged on and shared their info). And again, it's all free.

When I was a kid doing a research paper on dinosaurs (eighth grade I think). I was at the mercy of our small town public library. I recall searching through the card catalog and reference books. Freed from them, I was at the mercy of our librarians ability to retrieve the books and National Geographics. But then I was at the mercy of the magazines themselves and their former users. What if someone had lost a copy or torn out a page? I was screwed. Then if I couldn't find it at our library, I was at the mercy of the inter-library loan system. If I couldn't find a source, I had to do without. And my education experience was lessened.

That never happens with Wikipedia. And even if the information isn't always credible on Wikipedia, it's riddled with hyperlinks, so that I can be led from Wikipedia to more reliable sources.

5. Outsourcing Y2K.

This means simply the rise of India. What India did very well was educate the children of the elite. They set up first class engineering, math, and science programs in their universities. Today, they have some of the best programs in the world. Now, they attempt to educate more and more of their population. In fact, the number of engineering degrees earned are by Indians.

It used to be that great minds had to come to America to be education. That's not the case anymore, and India is an excellent example of that. Now they come to America for jobs (just try and find an American doctor or professor . . .).

As a result of this emphasis in engineering, math, and science, India had a large surplus of talented workers. Initially, their talents were wasted - or at least not fully utilized.

But when American companies - thanks to the previous flatteners - could now outsource their work to other countries (namely India), it took all of one nano-second to realize that India was going to be doing a lot of our work for a lot less money. Suddenly, that vast educated class of workers (I'm sure you've seen the slogan "India and China have more honor students than we have students") could handle all of the skilled jobs that could possible be outsourced (accounting, lawyering, and tech support).

Now, this flattener scares the hell out of me. For our society is no longer based on pure labor. We need knowledge workers. India made a conscious effort to educate and train their young people. America is trying to do the same thing (NCLB, RTTT, the profiles of Learning . . .), yet our efforts don't stick - for whatever reason. Will our young people be able to face (let alone thrive) in a knowledge economy?

If we don't, China and India sure as hell will.

6. Offshoring or Running with Gazelles, Eating with Lions

China joins the World Trade Organization. I think Walmart is king of this. While they sell products in every damn town in the country, everything else about Walmart is done in China (just try to find something in there that isn't made in China). Suddenly, it became easier to pick up and move production to China.

As Congressman George Miller put it when addressing the National Press Club: "We thought it was going to be great when China opened up. This was going to be great. We can sell everything to China. Little did we know that they'd be selling us the fuselage for the advanced fighter planes."

How quickly China closed in on us.

As Friedman observes, "Ever since the Chinese joined the WTO, both they and the rest of the world have had to run faster and faster (to stay competitive)".

But American companies aren't just picking up and moving to China.

Soon, American companies began to build in India, namely Bangalore, so much so that if you travel down the streets, you can't help but see American businesses everywhere (check out the 30 Days on Outsourcing for a really interesting look at this).

How has this flattened the world? Well, the bulk of what we buy just isn't made here. That wasn't the case fifty years ago.

The landscape for employment and opportunity has changed. As Oded Shekar tells American companies: "If you still make anything labor intensive, get out now rather than bleed to death [because you are losing money by not having it made in China or India]."

Thus, we have a knowledge economy. Again, as George Miller states "Innovation and discovery are the only viable sources for economic growth and development."

Notice production isn't in that equation. Our students and future workers have to be able to innovate and discover in order to thrive, not just labor away. This is the total opposite of what the workforce was when my father entered it when you didn't need a high school diploma to find a job as a laborer and provide for your family.

In fact, my father never could have imagined the most sought after job today: search engine optimizers.

7. Supply-Chain or Eating Sushi in Arkansas

There might not be a greater achievement in business that the supply-chain.

What this means is total efficiency. Or at least the illusion of it.

In America (if not the world) Walmart is king at this.

If you pull a product off the shelf in a Walmart in Thief River Falls, as soon as you go through the check out, the bar code on that product is scanned.

That simple little innocuous event that you don't even notice because you're fishing out your wallet or scanning those magazines they keep on the end-caps is the start of something so complex and amazing, that it is a feat to behold.

For that is the start of the supply-chain. That barcode is sent out as a signal to the supplier's factory (whether that's in China or India or America) telling the supplier that Walmart needs another item. That sets in motion an order at that supplier. That supplier will ship a box full of that item (and hundreds of others that it supplies Walmart with) to Walmart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas where Walmart's 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center resides. In fact, hundreds of different products arrive from suppliers all over the globe. A great system separates all the boxes and figures out where to send them so that in a week's time a new box shows up to Walmart in TRF with a fresh supply of the item you bought just last week. And this happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Now, I'm not trying to say that this is flawless. How many times have we gone to Walmart and not find what we're looking for? But that is a far cry from 25 years ago when you simply had to make do with whatever your local hardware store decided to stock and sell (at a much higher price than Walmart).

So what, you say. Well, just think of ALL the products Walmart sells - from computers, TVs, paint, toys, to groceries. Then think of the massive supply-chain they have developed over the years to supply their customers' needs.

Only in a flat world could something so complex work so well.

8. Insourcing or What the Guys in the Funny Brown Shorts Are Really Doing

Yep, that's UPS Friedman is talking about.

UPS (and Fed Ex) aren't just delivering packages. They'd adapted to this flat world and shown how businesses - if they want to thrive in a flat world - have to adapt and change . . . or die (do not ask, dear US Postal Service, for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee). No. UPS isn't just delivering your package. They've taken it one step - an absolutely paramount step - further. They now hand internal logistics.

What the hell does that mean?

UPS synchronizes supply chains for companies large and small. Just look at what UPS and Fed Ex do for Digi Key. They don't simply ship stuff. They handle internal logistics.

Another example that Friedman offers - let's say your Toshiba laptop breaks. You call Toshiba and they say drop it off at the UPS store. Then several days later you get it back - again from UPS - and it works. And you assume it was sent off to the Toshiba headquarters to get fixed.

Not.

UPS has insourced all of Toshiba's internal logistics. That means Toshiba doesn't have to even worry about your laptop. UPS handles it all.

After you drop off your laptop at their store, they send it to a great big airplane hanger in Louisville where a guy in funny brown shorts actually fixes your computer and then sends it back to you. UPS has made it more efficient for Toshiba to insource all of this to UPS rather than have to do it themselves. How ingenious is that?

Think of that the next time you order something from Amazon. How do you think you get it the next day by noon? It comes from other UPS hubs that stock items for Amazon. You buy a new pair of Nike shoes and want them by noon the next day. It's not like Nike ships them from their headquarters on a super fast plane to get them to you the very next day. They call up UPS to handle it. Nike has insourced UPS to handle their internal logistics because it's easier and cheaper to have UPS handle it than Nike.

Talk about collaboration and cooperation. It's like two organism working together and living off of each other for mutual survival. There are numerous companies who no longer handle any of their own products: UPS handles it all. Ingenious.

9. In-Forming or Google, Yahoo! MSN Web Search

How Google has changed our lives.

Ever Google yourself? Try it and see what you find. You might be surprised.

Just spend a day - or an hour - on Google and see what you can find or learn. Thanks to the presentation "Shift Happens," we know there are 2.9 billion searches performed on Google each month. One must then ask the key question: to whom were these questions addressed BG (before Google)?

This allows us - as individuals - to collaborate with an unprecedented amount of data any time we want.

This is a great equalizer. If I log on to Google and so does a kid in Brazil and a professor in India and a grandmother in Omaha, we all have the same access to the same research and information. No longer are the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, only held by a few.

10. The Steroids or Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual

These - as Friedman states - are simply such things as file sharing, wireless, and cellular. These are turbo charging all these new forms of collaboration. This allows us to do any type of collaboration and creation from any where at any time from just about any device totally mobile.

On a small scale, I did this last fall on a trip to Mayville. I took the day off from school to move our patio furniture into storage. The previous night I had posted a rather infamous blog entry about KoKo's playing time. No sooner had I gotten out of town before that little red light began flashing on my BlackBerry. It was an email from a coach who took issue with my blog. I pulled over and typed a response trying to smooth things over and explain where I was coming from.

Then I headed south on 32. I had brought my iPod Classic. I had ripped a new Biography episode of Edgar Allan Poe on it. I wanted to preview it on my way to Mayville. However, I soon began thinking about a reading guide I wanted to put together as I listened to the episode. So I took out my BlackBerry again and began using the "Notes" app on it to type out my questions.

Prior to Crookston, I had received another email from the same coach. So I pulled over and typed another response. In the meantime, I used my BlackBerry to check out my blog and to see that my little blog counter at the bottom was going nuts. Lots of hits on the blog as it was emailed around and became a hot topic.

I turned at Neilsville and had to pull over to send off another email. By the time I was to Mayville, I had sent numerous emails, made a couple calls, checked my blog, finished the EAP Biography, and typed up a reading guide to go with it.

On the way back, I received an email from the athletic director. So I swung in to Caribou Coffee for a coffee and their free wi-fi. I had my MacBook with, so I opened it up and sent off yet another email. I also put up a follow up blog entry clarifying my initial blog entry.

After that, it was a relatively uneventful ride home, but look at all the work I got done - totally mobile (mostly sitting in Casey's 1996 Chevy Silverado) and totally wireless.

Oh yeah, I probably got 50 texts from students asking questions about their essays and readings, so I was also able to still help run my class and stay in the loop.

That's a flat world.

Want more proof? When the ash cloud grounded much of Europe, the Norwegian Prime Minister, stranded in the use was able to run the government using an iPad. Now, that is the ultimate test to living in a flat world.

Now, after these 10 flatteners, the trick will be trying to find our places in this flat world and staying economically viable. No easy feat! But what exciting times to be alive.