If It’s Not Happening It’s Because You’re Not Doing It

This chapter once again reinforces the power of the individual. It also ties in a little bit with Rule # 9 from the how companies cope chapter. Environmentalists and activist now have more power than ever before to influence the behavior of companies. The interesting thing is companies are finally listening.

Thee flat world has given people the opportunity to make a real difference. In Latin America Endeavor is changing the language. Prior to their efforts their was no word for entrepreneur in the Portuguese language. Thanks to all of the work they have done helping small-businesses and start-ups the word emprendedor was born. Of course, that was not all due to Endeavor but also in large part to the spread of the global economy. I also love how people are using the flat world to help build better lives. I understand how and why companies are outsourcing and how it benefits them. However, it is nice to see that there are companies like Digital Divide Data, which are pushing outsourcing in countries like Cambodia to improve the quality of life there.
The most interesting thing I took from this chapter was the role the flat world would take in United States government. We no longer need to rely on elected officials to solve all our problems. We now have the ability to collaborate and solve our own problems. It will be interesting to see if this comes into play in the 2008 elections. As argued in the chapter I believe, “the party that stakes out this new frontier is the party that will be the majority party in the twenty-first century.”