Rating: - Adapt to the digitizing world, grab the opportunities or perish
Thomas Friedman explains very clearly with many examples from throughout the world how in recent years the advances in digitization, internet and communication technology have been empowering the individual, creating globalization at an individual level, but also creating risks of unemployment for people who do not realize what is happening and fail to educate themselves to adapt to these transformations.

In contrast with many futurology books that predict how the world and our lives will be transformed in the future, The World is Flat talks about not some distant future but about what has already been happening in recent history, today and the likely future trends. Yet as he explains many people are still not aware of what is happening although they may significantly be affected by it. Thomas Friedman uses the analogy " the flattening of the world " for the ongoing transformation of the relationships between people ; business, consumption, politics, economy and educational relationships both at domestic and international levels are being rearranged such that the vertical hierarchy that has been the characteristic of these relationships for centuries are flattening out. This is not a conspiracy nor a deliberate policy of any government or any organization. It is the inevitable consequence of the advances in technology, particularly digital communication technology.

This book titled The World Is Flat explains many things some of which we may perhaps already know, but it puts them all together and makes the unaware individual aware of the meaning of the changes taking place around him/ her at a breathtaking pace, what the individual, the businesses, governments around the world must do to seize the arising opportunities, minimize and manage the resulting threats. Thomas Friedman also explains how a great part of the populations in the backward regions of the world are left out of this process that he calls the flattening of the world. In fact, he lists this exclusion of the great masses from this process as one of the threats to the continuability of the process : he does not take the continuation of the flatening process for granted ; according to the author there are several major risks that could slow down or even completely stop the world flattening process for good ; 1) if a nuclear war breaks out anywhere in the world such as between India and Pakistan or North Korea and Japan 2 ) if a big terrorist attack similar to the one made onto the USA on September 9th 2000 occurs again 3 ) the continuation of exclusion of major backward populations around the world from the world flattening / globalization at individual level. Because such catastrophic events would cause countries to set up protective and permanent barriers against each other terminating globalization and flattening trends.

According to the author among the world flattening processes that have been going on for several years are the outsourcing of many jobs that are suitable to be digitized and electronically transmitted to anywhere in the world where they can be performed more cheaply and efficiently than locally. Until recently, people had to migrate to many countries to get various jobs. While that process still continues many jobs that can be transmitted digitally and electronially now go to the people ( are outsourced ) whereever in the world they maybe instead of people going to the jobs. This creates high paying job opportunities for people who are wise and prepared to take advantage of this and unemployment for people who want to continue holding on in the old way to their jobs which have been digitized and shipped to somewhere on the globe. The individual may be at bay from this risk by acquiring the necessary skills and being the recepient of the outsourced job that previously was performed within a company or by specializing in a skill that is not digitizable and transmittable electronically such as being a famous artist etc. People had better educate themselves in the proper way to adapt and seize the opprtunities or be victims of these transformations.
Another world flattenning event is the new power of the individual to upload articles, videos etc. on the internet and thereby assert his/her personal contribution as never before possible. An example he gives is what I am doing right now ; uploading my review of the book the World is Flat onto the Amazon website for many potential customers like you to read. In the beginning individuals used the internet to download only. Recently it has become a two way process ; uploading and downloading. So what ? well this is creating opportunities for the individual as never before. Please read the details from the book, otherwise I would have to write the whole book here. As examples to these that Friedman gives are the websites such as Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, Youtube ; the video sharing website, Amazon ; where I am currently sharing with you my opinion about a book I purchased and read ; ebay the auction trade website etc. I am surprised however that he does not mention Limewire ; the file sharing website and freely downloadable software on the internet through which people can download, upload and share many songs etc. I know he can not talk about everything but Limewire is no less significant than the examples he gives.

Another criticism I have is that too much, about 80 % of Thomas Friedman's examples and explanations are from India. He does talk about what is happening in many countries but India dominates too much of his book. No doubt he knows a lot about India and what is happening there affects both India and the world but still I think the effect of India on the world is exaggerated.

I am also uncomfortable with the title of the book and the analogy : The World is Flat. The main theme of the book as explained above is the transformation of the many aspects of the human relationships due to the advances in digital communication technology, the opportunities and risks thereby arising, what must be done at individual and governmental levels around the world to exploit the opportunities and manage the risks, how the educational system especially in the USA must be reformed to prepare the individual and the society to these opportunities and risks. I see no need to label these transformations as a " flattenning of the world ". OK vertical hierarchies in the work world may become more horizontal as a result but still the main idea could have been explained under a much more appropriate heading.

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Rating: - Must reading for all students and politicians
Outstanding analysis of world economics. Absolutely essential to understanding what and why things have happened in the world .... and more importantly what to expect in future changes.

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Rating: - Need a better understanding where the world is going
The world is flat is excellent reading. It is also scary and calls for the USA to get back to being competitive and stop resting on our past accomplishments. We are using the technolgogy we developed to entertain ourselves and the rest of the world is using it to get a piece of OUR pie. Friendman called it like it is and also is calling us to be accountable for the future of our own destiny. Long book,650 pages, but worth every page and minute.

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Rating: - Average. Verbose. Nothing new.
I am very disappointed by this book. Most of the stuff that Friedman talks about is obvious if one listens to CNN or reads a newspaper. If you are decently educated, then the book also seems verbose and just long winded. The book could have been condensed into quarter of its volume. The anecdotes are very basic, something for a high schooler. The "horizontal" and "vertical" that Friedman repeatedly inserts in the book is nothing new. It is as if a Friedman thinks he is educating dumb people about something that only he has theorized. Overall, an overly basic book that I would recommend to someone finishing high school.

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Rating: - He has no point
The world is flat? What do you meant the world is flat? I tried reading some of this book. All I could get out of it is that genius no longer excels, while dufuses abound all over cyberspace. Crap. I have seen the dufuses, the spammers, the porn sites, the trashy material. But I've also seen top notch intellectual material, and know that it is to be found if you know where to look.

And the book was boring. It soon dawned on me that the author is not talking about "flat earth" theories, such as what Mark Levin aka "the Great One" calls "flat earth, no growth, enviro-Marxism", or the ruling theory of biological evolution which dismisses intelligent design, or any other refuted tradition that dies hard. No, Thomas L Friedman (and he's no Milton) has in mind something more in line with what the Bible refers to as the mountains being leveled.

And I could not make out any sensible meaning out of what the author is saying. I could not read on. He writes essentially gibberish peppered with the obvious. Others praise him for recognizing globalism, others blame him for motivating it. People apparently think a "flat earth" with "level playing fields" is a fast-paced competitive market environment. I don't think Bush could have said something that stupid. I guess genius isn't allowed to sell, but the rich are still getting richer? The class warfare game is still bing played like it always has been, and will be by the Marxists? I guess "flat earth" is the latest Marxist aphorism? Now the author thinks we should have a go at being China. I heard Mark Levin comment about that.

Oh, I get it. These Marxists lack originality, and even when they occasionally have that, it doesn't impress.