The one-sentence summary

The Internet has effectively flattened the world to the point where businesses can view the entire thing as both a potential resource and a market.

WHAT THE BOOK SAYS

  • FLATKnowledge and resources are connecting all over the world, effectively flattening it.
  • These forces, which include blogging, online encyclopedias and podcasting can be a force for good – for business, the environment and people everywhere.
  • There are ten forces that flattened the world;
  • 11/9/89: the day the Berlin Wall came down
  • 8/9/95: the launch of the World Wide Web
  • Work Flow Software: making much more stuff happen seamlessly
  • Uploading: everybody can contribute to online communities
  • Outsourcing: your company may not do much of what it sells to customers
  • Offshoring: many US services are provided in India
  • Supply-chaining: making sure everything arrives in the right place, fast
  • Insourcing: for example, UPS repair all of Toshiba’s laptops
  • In-forming: Google, Yahoo! and MSN websearch inform people at the touch of a button
  • The steroids: digital, mobile, personal, and virtual devices all fuel the machine
  • He also outlines The Triple Convergence. This is where new players, a new playing field, and new processes all come together in “horizontal collaboration”.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT

  • It is a superb synthesis of all the developments you can think of in modern communications.
  • Many of the elements of globalisation are recorded in a fragmented way. Here they are all drawn together in one place.
  • It is very thought-provoking because it highlights how recent so many of the developments we now take for granted are.
  • There are lots of anecdotes and examples to bring the drier technological points to life.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH

  • It is very long, so you need a bit of stamina to get through it.