I saw a great Webcast presentation by Thomas Friedman, the author of The World Is Flat. It offered interesting opinions and perspectives that were not covered in the book. There were also interesting questions from the audiences during Q&A.

As an interesting example of the Flat World, Friedman talked about an interesting experiment conducted by McDonald's. In the new experimental system, drive-through orders are not taken not by the workers in the store, but rather by someone else in a different location. The order is then routed back to the store where it will be fulfill and handed to the customer. The benefit of the new system? Lower rate of errors as a result of the separation of responsibilities. This kind of system was difficult to implement before the Flat World, but not in the new Flat World.

Friedman also talked about the shift of power from countries to companies to individuals. He gave a great example of how Southwest Airlines put this concept into action. About a year ago Southwest implemented a new system in which passengers can print their own boarding passes at 12:01am on the day of the departure. As a frequent Southwest flyer, I thought this was convenient, but didn't quite understand why Southwest did this. I always though Southwest's A-B-C seating system encouraged passengers to arrive to the airport early, which increases the likelihood of on-time departures. By allowing passengers to print their own boarding passes, I felt that Southwest passengers no longer have any incentive to arrive early. Friedman pointed out, however, that Southwest essentially turned its customers to its employees, ticket agents. This was a great example of the shift of power from a company to individuals. This is a win for customers as we don't need to waste time in the airport, and it is also a win for Southwest as it can lower its operation cost. As long as it doesn't cause any negative side-effects, such as more frequent flight delays, this system is a win-win for both Southwest and its customers. Judging from the fact that Southwest now allows boarding passes to be printed 24 hours before the flight (as opposed to 12:01am, which can be inconvenient), I think it is reasonable to believe that the system must be working well.

There were many interesting questions from the audiences during the Q&A session. During his presentation Friedman mentioned that Bill Gates had some comments, so there was a question about what those comments were. According to Friedman, Bill Gates thought that the book put too much emphasis on Open Source, which is understandable given that it threatens Microsoft's software business. Perhaps I'm biased, but I actually share Bill's viewpoint. Bill Gates also talked about the other half of the world that is not flat. Obviously Bill is very active on his foundation work, and I'm sure he's well aware of the issue.

There was an interesting question about education, a topic which Friedman discussed in depth in the book. Given that U.S. is not well-prepared for the Flat World, an audience asked what we can do in this field. Friedman offered two answers. The first is the importance of parenting. He talked about an interesting story of a school teacher in a PTA conference. The first family, an Asian family, asked the teacher to increase the amount of homework so that their child will study more. The second family, a European family, asked the teacher to put more emphasis on science education. The third family, from U.S., asked the teacher to reduce the amount of homework because their child is busy with soccer practice, piano lesson, and also, their child need time to chill :)  In the Flat World, people in U.S. compete with people from countries with more discipline on education. The second point Friedman mentioned was the importance of the "ability to learn how to learn". He pointed out that because of the fast pace of change in the Flat World, the ability to self-learn new skills is more important than ever.

Friedman then talked a bit about U.S. immigration policy. Though U.S. is a country which benefited greatly from open immigration policies, the situation has changed since 9/11. Friedman fears that closing the country from immigration means no exchange of ideas, no collaboration, and no development of friendship. He is concerned about closing off what he calls "America's DNA" in the Flat World. At one point he mentioned that Ph. D students should receive diplomas with Green Cards stapled, which drew applause from the audience :)

I'll quickly recap Friedman's 10 Flatteners:

1. Windows: it became a platform on which individuals can author information
2. Netscape: it popularized the Internet as a platform to exchange information, and the dot-com era that followed caused over-investment of $1 trillion in building fiber optic network (which of course became the foundation of the Flat Wolrd)
3. Workflow: offered a way for applications to talk with each other

Based on those Flatteners came:

4. Outsourcing
5. Off-shoring
6. Uploading (Open Source, blogging, podcasting): this is the Architecture of Participation in Web 2.0
7. Supply-chaining: Friedman pointed out that "Wal-Mart is one of the largest companies in the world, but it doesn't make anything"
8. Insourcing: UPS insources Toshiba's technical support, Nike's online store, and Papa John’ logistics
9. Web search: individuals have more power to find information than ever before
10. Wireless and Mobility