The video discussion, Tom Freedman, The World is Flat, is about Tom Freedman’s experience of how he learned the world is flat. By this, he means that anyone can send their own content to anyone in the world, basically for free. Tom believes the global economic playing field is being leveled. He believes this happened by three great eras of globalization. The first, globalization 1.0 started in 1492 and lasted until early 1800’s where the world shrunk from large to medium. The Spanish explored the Americas, and Britain colonized India, Portugal and East Asia. The next form of globalization was globalization 2.0. this is from the early 1800’s to 2000. This is when the world went global for markets and labor. The world went from medium to small.…show more content… I agree with him that “the world is flat”. Because of computers and the growing technology we have today, it is easier than ever to connect with people. International business is so huge that it is a major in some colleges and a required class in most colleges. The iPhone for example, is not possible without international business because the parts are produced all over the world and the cost would be much more expensive for buyers if it was all produced in America. The world being flat helps out millions of companies around the world because of the ability to contact foreign producers to help with their business (Freedman,…show more content… Before the internet and when the world was not flat, it was nearly impossible to interact with people of other countries without it being expensive or time consuming. A plane ride was needed to talk to other countries because there was no internet access to video chat or email. Because of Netscape’s invention of browsers, it gave business the ability to talk internationally and expand their business in ways never imagined before. In one example Tome gives, the Hungarian taxi driver in Budapest had a website in three languages, German, English and Magyar with music. It was in different languages to cater to different cultures which is considered international business. If he did not have different languages, he would only cater to that specific group of people that spoke that language. For example, if it was only in German, the website would only cater to people that spoke German. Most Americans would not be able to use it because not all Americans speak English (Freedman, 2008).
Overall, Tom Freeman is an intelligent man. He tells how the world have changed significantly because of the invention of the PC and browsers. It created a whole new way of doing business, international business. It happened because of the startup company, Netscape. The world is flat because the global economic playing field has been