The World is Flat 3.0

I found Thomas L. Friedman's presentation very interesting. He first comes out and says a little about himself and follows with the explaining of his newly released book The World is Flat 3.0. I found interesting, that in comparison to many philosophers learned about in Wireless World, Mr. Friedman's work came about by accident. While visiting India, primarily there to receive the opposing side to outsourcing, an Indian entrepreneur told him that the economic playing field is leveling and the Americans are not ready. This then played over in his mind until he opinionated that this Indian entrepreneur is was trying to tell him the world is flat.
I completely agree with Mr. Friedman when he discusses how the world shrunk using three different eras. He states that the world went from being run through Countries, then companies, and now individuals. I believe not only is the economic playing field being leveled, but the power distribution is as well. Starting with Countries, there was no idividualality and the power was minor divided. Moving on to companies, who acquired enough power to make crucial decisions, which could then impact the country. And finally the individual, who now has the resources to make these important decisions and ultimately compete on a more individual level. I also agree with Friedman's statement that this individual era came about with the introduction of PCs. PCs began the domino effect that would later result in the world being connected as countries and individuals. He also states that individuals are now uploading, rather than downloading. I believe this means rather then downloading anothers information, we are now uploading our own. This is shown in the use of Wikipedia or blogging.
During the final interesting phase of his presentation, Friedman talked about the world changing from being vertically to horizontally. The horizontally is relating to the idea that the world is flat, and he tells a story explaining the impact of this change. In his Southwest Airlines story, Friedman tells the audience the difficulty he had buying a ticket intitally (referred to as the vertical way), and later buying a tickey using using a different way (horizontal). Buy going on the Internet to buy his ticket he acquired 60 min of productivity, and he explains many companies and now individuals are connecting horizontally because the production is increased. In support of this, a man he interviewed stated he worked in the chocolate industry, however closed down because another country could make and ship the product faster and cheaper then he could make it. Having connections, horizontally, increases productivity and thus levels the economic playing field. Rater then one company being on top and controlling all, others are connecting and giving everyone equal opportunity. I truly support Friedman's last statement that the Country who will take the challenge to control power/energy and does it best and most productive, will rule the 21st Century.
From his presentation, I do not disagree with Thomas L. Friedman in any way. He uses very strong support with his opinion, and I also believe him because I see much of what he explains. We can all see it, Thomas L. Friedman simply did the hard part and put what we are seeing into words. After watching his presentation I began to think and much of what he said struck me and I realized all he said is true. As the Indian entrepreneur was trying to say, Americans are not on top anymore, nobody is. The playing field has been leveled not only economically but in power as well. With the resources and greatest advancements, everyone now has the opportunity that years ago only few had.