Is the World Really Flat? Reflections on Week 1

The capacity of global networks to shape economies, political structures, and cultural norms confirms Friedman’s assertion that the world is increasingly flat (Friedman, 2007).  Historically, if one examined the economic and political forces that shaped the development of modern civilization, only a few countries actually made a notable footprint on our current civilization.  Today, the principle of globalization 3.0 suggests countless more nation states and individuals across the world have the capacity to benefit from the global economy, unlike in previous economic transitions, where only a small handful of countries dominated the economic marketplace. 

The distinction between Friedman and Florida lies in perceptions of the relative outcomes of trickle-down economic theory.  Friedman presents evidence from Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Northern China to suggest that globalization strengthens local economies by building a strong middle class (Friedman, 2007).  In contrast, Florida’s evidence from the World Bank and other international organization’s suggests that only a few regions benefit from the trickle down impact of innovation (2005). The most significant distinction between the two arguments lies in one’s interpretation of “opportunity.”  For Friedman (2007), globalization yields greater interconnectivity and thereby provides substantively more opportunity for individual actors across the globe to benefit from globalization.  Alternatively, Florida suggests that while “opportunity” may be more flat, those accessing the opportunity represent a select group of powerful players in the global innovation marketplace.  Thus, Florida argues that the world may more aptly be describe as “spiky” rather than flat (2005, p. 48).   According to Florida (2005), the beneficiaries of Globalization 3.0 are still largely clustered in developed economies.  Their growth continues to expand at rapid rates compared to less developed economies. 

While both of these texts were written prior to the 2008 economic downturn, recent data from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund suggest that emerging economies represent the highest percentage growth rates in the world (Global Finance, 2013).  While 100 years ago, three or four countries dominated the world trade markets, today emerging economies such as Brazil, Argentina, India, South Korea, China, Tunisia, Vietnam and others are making substantive improvement in economic output and general economic well-being in their respective countries.  Thus, globalization’s impact, while still confined to a limited number of countries does show evidence of expansion and flattening.

Friedman and Florida may actually find common ground when considering globalization beyond purely economic parameters.  Friedman’s argument for global flatness extends beyond pure economic benefit.  Moreover, Friedman’s belief suggests that by flattening global networks, our world inherently creates greater opportunity.  Whether and how people seize global opportunities is reflected in the Florida data, but this data doesn’t deny the fact that global networks still provide substantively more opportunities to connect, create, and collaborate than ever before.  Stanford professor Sebastian Thurn’s trial of a massive, open, online course (MOOC) flattened the world when 160,000 students from 190 different countries enrolled in an artificial intelligence course free of charge (Webley, 2012).  In less than five months, a Stanford education went from an opportunity for a privileged few, to an opportunity for students from across the world.  MOOC’s represent an example of individuals seizing an opportunity presented in a flattened global environment.  Similarly, various social networking tools continue to enhance global communication, collaboration, and business opportunities.  Telecommuting, webinar training, and global interconnectivity enabled countless small businesses across the world to operate in new and innovative ways.  Web sponsored, crowd-based fundraising built enables thousands of NGO’s currently operating in the developing world to secure recognition, resources and monetary support.  While much progress needs to be made to strengthen the economies of these regions, the web has led to resource acquisition and worldwide recognition of NGO’s that previously struggled to even exist.  Organizations such as charity water exemplify this trend.   

The web continues to impact how, what and where we conduct our work.  At our institution, many online teaching faculty connect with our university from across the nation and world.  Their ability to share experiences from diverse backgrounds and varying locations strengthens the experience of students enrolled in our online programs.  Similarly, for some types of institutional job searches, our human resource director relies on social media tools such as linked in to connect to prospective hires.  Finally, professional development has shifted from a once-a-year, travel to a conference or convention model, to substantively more webinars and other interactive web-based professional development seminars.  Thus, the frequency of professional development and the expanded network developed through interactions generated in those webinars further enhances the productivity of many staff within our organization. 

The participatory nature of the web fosters substantive global dialogue but it also has some drawbacks.  For example, individuals stating particular opinions or developing individual news blogs or media sites have usurped traditional media outlets.  Thus, the comprehensive and objective nature of traditional media outlets garners less attention than individual sites backed by limited journalistic investigation.  Similarly, the participatory nature of the web has generated significant content on the web.  Thus, people relying on the web for resources must sift through significant data to discern the accuracy and reliability of the data.  Overall, however, the increasing nature of participation ensures greater access for thousands of individuals to opportunities to improve their work and well-being. 

Global Finance (2013).  World GDP growth by region.  Retrieved from http://www.gfmag.com/component/content/article/119-economic-data/12376-economic-dataworlds-gdp-growth-by-regionhtml.html#axzz2SGQgNqsh

Florida, R. (2005, October).  The world is spiky.  The Atlantic Monthly. 

Friedman, T. L. (2007).  The world is flat.  New York, NY:  Picador.

Webley, K. (2012).  MOOC Brigade:  will massive open online courses revolutionize higher education.  Retrieved from http://nation.time.com/2012/09/04/mooc-brigade-will-massive-open-online-courses-revolutionize-higher-education/