After listening to Thomas Friedman's speech entitled the World is Flat, I personally believe that the most important flattener he spoke about was the introduction of Netscape. When the Internet was first introduced no one really thought much about it. Today the internet is one of the most useful tools there is in the business world. The internet allows people to communicate with each other across the world, whether it is through email or a web cam. Business people can do business without even being in the same room as one another thanks to the internet. The internet did not just affect the business world, it affected the entire world. People can interact with one another, you can meet new people online, you can do all of your shopping on the internet without even leaving your house, some people work at home on their computers and never have to step foot into an office. The introduction of the internet has allowed for so many more advances to modern day tasks. Listening to Friedman talk about how the business world is flattening out really is true and is really interesting to hear about. The internet alone has “flattened” the playing field almost all by itself. Advantages of the internet allow for much quicker business transactions and allow companies to stay up to date with what their competitors have been doing. When a company knows what their competitors have been completing, they can turn around and respond with a new or more proficient product. With all of this happening technology has been increasing by unremarkable amounts over the past decade. Moving up through school to college I have slowly seen the evolution of the internet in the education system. The internet provides me with information for projects and home work that I would not have known, but with the help of the internet it is easily accessible and can be found almost instantly. Here at Nichols we use Moodle in many of our classes to submit our work and check to see what is due. Without the internet we would not be able to access sites like these. The introduction of Netscape is one of the most important factors in the world becoming flat today.
I completely agree with your analysis and that Netscape was the most significant flattener that Friedman presented. The development of the internet browser has completely changed our way of communicating and obtaining information. It gave us the ability to surf the web for music, webpages, or even research and learn new things. The internet world is what drives our modern-day society where nearly every business or school has a website has a website to sell themselves and communicate to others. The internet capabilities have expanded so greatly that people can have it right on their phone or ipod, giving them instant access. The internet browser is in direct relation to the development of social media, which is our main line of communication nowadays. Netscape was certainly a breakthrough for the technologically advanced world we live in today.
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