Friedman breaks down his theory of the world being flat into ten different reasons and/ or events that he calls "flatteners". In my opinion, the most significant flattener that made the most impact on our technological society was the development of Netscape. On August 9, 1995, Netscape went public and single-handedly paved the way for people to be able to surf the web and communicate with each other all over the world. Netscape was not the invention of the internet, but rather the internet browser. This was a breakthrough in the sense of giving people the ability to search the internet and retrieve information from webpages. Netscape also freed up the internet and made it impossible for any major company or corporation could dominate it, which allowed for more interconnection between people. The introduction of Netscape triggered the "dot com" boom, which in turn triggered (what Friedman refers to as) the accidental over-investment in fiberoptic cable. This alone cut down the cost of transmitting data across the world. The demand of fiberoptic cable between domain names was so high that it was made available for virtually no cost. This made it possible for more people to connect with others, at such a low cost, whenever they wanted to, and wherever they wanted to.
Netscape was by far the most significant flattener that was discussed in Friedman's presentation. It created a path for people to communicate with each other over the internet at anytime they want to, no matter where they are around the world. It also gave people the freedom of surfing the web for music, websites, and/ or any information they wish to view whenever they want to. Everyone uses the internet everyday. We have such easy access to it now with smartphones, ipods, and ipads. Businesses and schools build websites to be able to communicate and sell themselves to the world. The internet is what runs our modern-day society. Netscape was a huge breakthrough in the technological world, and it essentially "flattened" the world more and faster than any other during this time.
I also found that Netscape was a significant flattener in our world. Without Web browsers or search engines I don’t know where would we be. Our whole world revolves around social media and Internet browsing. The Internet is so fast that we are sending electronic documents and communicating faster than ever imagined and further then we could ever imagine. This allows us to now we connect with people all over the world with a click of a button. This is great for big company’s who have roots in other locations (such as a US based company, having an office in Europe). This allows us to communicate a lot quicker over the Internet, rather than sending a letter, which could take time to respond. Even phone calls can be costly. This continues to amaze me how much we have accomplished as a society. I am excited to see where we go next.
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