The Most Significant Flattener

By far, the most significant flattener is Netscape and the company's influence on the world wide web. Netscape opened the door to every flattener that came after it. As Friedman talks about in his speech at Yale, Netscape opened the doors to internet browsers and actually created the first one. With internet browser's people could now search for whatever they are looking for with a simple sentence or even just a couple words. The information that we can find with a single search is incredible. If you need to know something you use and internet browser. Nowadays we use other browser's like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome, but Netscape contributed the start to each one of those browser's and without Netscape, those probably wouldn't exist.

Netscape not only opened the doors to internet browser's it also commercialized a set of open transmission protocols so a single company could not dominate over the entire internet system. This is very important because we see domination in nearly everything else. Wal-Mart and Target are dominating the sale of inexpensive household goods, foods, and clothes. Home Depot and Lowes are dominating the home repair market. Could you imagine having two or three companies controlling what was put on the internet and what had to stay off? How much less information we would have available at our fingertips if that happened? The lack of communication we would suffer if those companies ever targeted a whole country to block out. With everyone able to post, share, discuss, inform, sell, buy, and trade equally over the internet we are granted one of the greatest things we will ever get: Ability. If you want to start your own company completely off the internet, you have the ability to do that. If you want to tell everyone how great your family history is, you have the ability to do that. If you want to talk about how much you hate the New York Jets, you have the ability to do that. Everyone does and now, thanks to Netscape, always will.

The last thing Friedman talks about is the .com boom that Netscape triggered. This is what really connected us to other countries, other communities, other businesses, other students, and other friends. Without the .com boom we would have a lot harder time getting a hold of anyone overseas. We would still be trying to connect through phones, and when there is a 12 hour time difference between you and your contact it can really make it much harder to go about you business as normal. It is truly incredible the amount of information that Netscape has allowed us to find at the touch of our fingertips.

Response to Dan

Hi Dan,

I could not agree with you more on your thoughts following Tom Friedman's lecture. I think that our ideas most closely allign. The creation of Netscape has the greatest effect on the world, because it is the center of how we operate and function as a society today. I never even thought of the .com boom as a 'boom', because it is all I know in regards to using the internet. I now understand that the influence the .com boom created is why my life has become easier thanks to the Internet. I also do not believe that any of the 6 other flatteners would be influential without Netscape. Netscape has made all these other factors easier, more accessible, or simply put; possible. Netscape is the center point of Friedman's theory, and without it our world certainly would not be even and flat.

-Katelynn Havener

response to Eric

I completely agree with Eric and the rest of the class that the most significant flattener was Netscape making the interent public. Everyone in the class pretty much wrote the same thing but Eric's post made me actually sit and realize it. In the middle of his post he asks a question, "Could you picture the world without internet?" reading this most would just think of it as a rhetorical question but then he goes back and says, no actually think about it. It made me stop and think that we wouodl not be able to do more than half of our daily activities if there was no internet. We could not ahve a discussion within our class while noone is in the same room as eachother. I could not contact my bestfriend when she is over in Greece, or even find jobs as Eric pointed out. Netscape took the many countries of the world and brought them all to one central location and everyone can access. Although we take a simple email for granted it is truely an amazing thing.

An Even Playing Field

     In the past decade, the boundaries of the world that once separated different areas of society has drawn together, and the result is a flat world or what I like to call; “an even playing field”. The harmony between the aspects (flatteners) which have made the world flat is what has made our world a now more successful and productive society. Specifically, the conversion of a user friendly web browser-more commonly known as Netscape, has eased the way we operate every single day. I use the word ‘operate’, because in 2011 it is a safe assumption to make that most people in industrialized nations use a computer in one way or another at least once a day. Many jobs or lifestyles are centered on the use of a computer. More households have advanced (high-speed) access to the internet, and this is in part thanks to the flattener of Netscape. This being said, Netscape is by far the most significant flattener Tom Friedman mentioned in his lecture to Yale students. Netscape is presumably the leader of where technology in our world has come to in the last ten years.

                Because of Netscape, our world was introduced to a universal browser that eases and organizes the entire World Wide Web. This even playing field has allowed faster communication, quicker access to data and information, and a higher production rate of input and output goods. Without this fundamental tool, the internet would be filled with loopholes, incompatible websites, a break of communication, and a lower rate of productivity. Users would be confused, or even deterred from using the internet entirely.  Additionally, other world flatteners such as uploading, or supply chains would either be ineffective or worse: non-existent.

                In short, though society has begun to lack character or a sense of uniqueness, it is important to understand that fundamental flatteners exist because they better and enhance society. They create a new culture-one with opportunity and greater advancements. The public opening of Netscape has only opened new doors of opportunity. Sadly, our generation cannot really highlight these changes as they are the only thing we know. It is then left up to our elders to break down, explain, and show the improvements of life since the introduction of the internet. It will be exciting to see the continuous change and improvement that results from living in a flat, but versatile world.

-Katelynn Havener

Most Significant Flattener

Thomas Friedman outlined 10 flatteners that he feels truly shaped our society into what it is today. Out of those 10 points, he discussed the impact of search engines and how they evolved and developed into what we use today. The primary example is how google changed how we think, and how we use the Internet. Prior to search engines like Google, MSN, yahoo, and Altevista, we were expected to simply know how to find websites. It caused there to be a large division between those websites that could afford expensive advertising and aggressive marketing, and those that were small start-ups. Search engines created a more transparent visualization of the Internet by allowing websites equal opportunity for traffic, and while this seems only beneficial to the website developers, the entire world benefited. Users can now simply ask a question to google or yahoo, and have responses from Chinese users, Russian users, etc. Programs like Google Translator allow for entire web pages to be converted into a language understood by all, which further flattens the world. Friedman also outlines how google searches increased from 150 million searches per day to one billion, this exponential increase illustrates the effectiveness of search engines as well as their necessity in the modern world. Business are now considered "behind" if they aren't listed on the google search page and if a google search doesn't yield a private web page. But the effects of google aren't necessarily all beneficial. Google now knows more about us than ever before, and who is to say that information won't be shared with anyone? Every single search is recorded, regardless of its embarrassing nature. There have been incidents where search histories have been made public, and individuals have been identified for searching ridiculous and embarrassing things. So while the world has definitely been flattened by the emergence of search engines, their effects are not entirely benevolent.

Netscape- The most significant flattener.

By far the most significant flattener discussed in Tom Friedmens lecture about his book was the discussion on Netscape. Netscape was created in 1995, not very long ago and look how far it has come. Everything we do now is through the internet including homework, banking, shopping and especially communication with friends. Contaction someone from another country used to be nearly impossible because of the cost of the call. With facebook and even skype you can message them, call and video chat your friends from anywhere for free, all because of Netscape making the internet public. I honestly do not know where my generation would be without easily accessible internet. I was four years old when Netscape made the internet public making it so i dont even remember a time without internet. Mostly every teenager I know has a smart phone where they spend hours out of their day on the internet through their phone checking facebook, email, or just searching the web. Which brings be to another flattener that was amazing. Nevermind picturing life without internet, but what if the interent did not have Google? The information that is on the interenet would not be easily accessable without it. In fact, I just searched when Google was created and became big and google.com is what I typed in the address bar. Such a little thing to us, changed the world as it was known as is not realized by many people until it is pointed out as Tom Freidmen did to us.

Response to Samuel scott

Hey Sam, I agree with you on Netscape being the most significant flattener. I believe that it open the door to so many different things. For example being able to communicate with somone way across the world. It changed and shaped the way that we do business now by being able to have business expand to overseas. Also it gave the chance to be more advance by giving life to the other flatteners such as the uploading, insourcing, and outsourcing all of them would have never happen if it wasn't for Netscape. This is why Netscape is the most significant flattener in my opinion.