Friday, January 27, 2012

Homework # 2



As I watched Tom Friedman’s speech at Yale, It made me begin to think. Many of these flatteners have been developed in my lifetime. I have been able to see drastic changes in the technology world. The two flatteners I felt were significant were Netscape and Wikipedia.  Netscape was developed in the 90’s and released on 8/9/95. A Small Company in Mountain View, CA had developed Netscape. This company has changed the world forever. Any thing you can imagine on the Internet has been made possible from Netscape. This Internet browser has made it possible for people all over the world to illustrate anything they want. Companies are now able to sell over the Internet, you are able to research anything you want via Internet and find it instantaneously. Netscape has made it possible for people to connect all over the world and communicate effectively and much cheaper. This changed the world of dot COM.
            Wikipedia also is another significant flattener of the world. With out Internet Wikipedia and other search sites would have never been possible. Tom Friedman mentioned in his speech that he was able to replace Encarta with Wikipedia. If it wasn’t for these great resource sites we may be working with software that isn’t as efficient and timely as the web. Wikipedia had made it possible to find exactly what your are searching and give you information brought to you by people all over the world who have shared their knowledge and resources on a particular point and bring it to you electronically and instantaneously.
            Tom Friedman brought some great Flatteners to the table but I feel Netscape and Wikipedia are significant flattners. Without Web browsers or search engines I don’t know where would we be. Our whole world revolves around social media and Internet browsing. Sending thing electronically and communicating faster and further that we could ever imagine. Now we connect with people all over the world with a click of a button. It continues to amaze me. How much we have accomplished as a society and I am excited to see where we are headed next. 


1 comment:

  1. Meaghan, I completely agree with the first point in your blog. When I was very young, my family bought a Gateway. I remember all I could do was usually play computer games that were on disks because basic internet browsing was still somewhat complicated for the time. I remember how fast everything started developing, as soon as everyone started using AOL, kids our age began using the AOL instant messenger, and suddenly having a screen name and talking via text online was a hit. Not only that, I remember being able to play my friends online in internet website games. It is truly amazing how we have seen this technology and it capabilities advance through our lifetime, especially considering it is such an important aspect of common business and communication.

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