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The World Is Flat

The First Five Flatteners

By B. Mark Francis

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Flattener 1 11/9/89

• The fall of the Berlin Wall and the proliferation of MS Windows as an Operating System– This fall represent a blow to communism as a

form of government– It caused solidarity of the democratic nation

against communisms– Q. What about China or North Korea? How

long do you think that they will last?

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Flattener #1 cont.

• The Windows OS– Windows became the dominant OS of the era– Communication increased “the age of me and

my machine…”

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Flattener #2

• Netscape went public– This was the first of many internet

booms, a web browser that challenged Microsoft

– The silicon bubble– Q. how many web browsers can you

name?– Do you think the world is too dependent

upon wireless?

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Flattener # 2 cont.

• Although the bubble went… has the proliferation of technology slowed?

• What are some recent flatteners?

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Flattener #3

• Work flow software– Office and work suites that fostered

collaboration within and without a company– Commonality of standards (Xtml, TCP/IP)– MS Word became the industry standard

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Flattener #4

• Open Source– Apache web server– Linux– Open Office– Star Office– Java– Blogs

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Flattener #5

• Outsourcing Y2K– This led to the outsourcing phenomenon we see

today– Greed led to greed– Is there anyone to blame?

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Questions

• Are there any?

• How about these?– Is the world really flat?– Who are the major players– What is the next technological flattener?– When was the last time you wrote a paper

letter?

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Thanks for your time

• It has been a treat :-)