This is a summary for the fourth chapter of Thomas L.Friedman's book "The World is Flat". In this chapter, he discusses the different impacts that the shift from the Industrial era to the IT is affecting the world. He also gives a good example of outsourcing and intellectual law.
2. In this chapter, Thomas Friedman questions
ď˝
how will globalization change the way we do
business.
3. He then compares the industrial revolution, in
ď˝
which wealth was represented by
corporations, to the IT revolution, in which
wealth is represented by individuals.
5. The IT revolution, which started very
ď˝
recently, is changing the business world as
we know it.
6. He leads us to believe that the world
ď˝
flattening today could have been predicted by
Karl Marx
7. Friedman then talks
ď˝
about outsourcing. He
mainly talks about an
incident where a
company in Indiana was
outsourcing an Indian
company to upgrade
Indianaâs unemployment
computer system. This
took jobs away from
people in Indiana and
provided more for
Indians.
8. Friedman talks about how they now blurring
ď˝
boundaries between companies and
workers, as well as between communities and
business within them. Identities become more
difficult to find. The more traditional
positions as citizen, taxpayer, and
shareholder have all become twisted and
blurred.
9. Friedman concludes this chapter with an
ď˝
examination of intellectual property law and
what must be done to protect it. He also talks
about the expiring human bond in
comparison to the online world.
