The Ten Forces

The Ten Forces That Flattened The world

We are introduced to Friedman's interpretation of the Ten influencing factors that led to globalization and world flattening.

The ten forces are

Collapse of Berlin Wall was an event that represented the end of the Cold war, it allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream.was a physical barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic(11/09/1989). This was the start of how the world got flattened.

Netscape and the Web expanded the viewers for the Internet from its roots as a communications medium used mainly by geeks that made the Internet available to everyone of any age groups. (8/9/1995)

Workflow software was another type of force that had the capability of machines to talk to other machines with no humans involved. Friedman believes that the first three forces have become a “crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration.”

Open sourcing is force that made communities uploading and collaborating on online projects, for example the blogs, and Wikipedia used by people. Friedman thought that this force was "the most disruptive force of all."

“Friedman quarrels that outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and manufacturing activities into components, with each component performed in most efficient, cost-effective way”. This force helps people to communicate even if they don’t know each other. its a great way to get a project done and learned from them. Students learn a way to make international adds possible from any other region in the world.

Offshoring is a way or version of out sourcing by Manufacturing's

Supply chaining is the 8^th force that Friedman evaluates to be the modern retail supply chain to a river, he points to “Wal-Mart as the best example of a company using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping.”

Insourcing, according to Friedman is to use UPS as a prime example for insourcing, “in which the company's employees perform services--beyond shipping--for another company.” For example, UPS itself repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees.

In-forming is way to information of various subjects, Google and other search engines are the prime example. "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people", writes Friedman.

The Steroids are personal digital devices like mobile phones, iPods, personal digital assistants, instant messaging, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In the field of The steroids, I personally feel comfortable with that force because I understand the way it makes the world flat. In the case of mobile phones, people have been successful to contact and find out about other people. Such as families are sure they are safe through this process of communication. Friends enjoy talking to each other for comfort and the mobile is responsible for all these benefits. The VoIP protocol has also been a major preference for cheaper calls abroad. Most people live away from families and friends so instead of wasting more money calling from a mobile phone or landline most people use the voice over internet call. Another example would be Skype. It happens to be free if a person calls computer to computer.