Netscape Goes Public

The most significant flattener from Thomas Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat,” is the introduction of Netscape to the public. Netscape is a computer services company located in the United States, and is responsible for creating a once-dominant web browser.

Netscape was “the second company to attempt to capitalize on the World Wide Web.” They advertised that “the web is for everyone” and stated that one of its goals was to “level the playing field” among operating systems. Netscape was successful in doing so, and ultimately opened the floodgates to a series of innovative developments.

In a lecture regarding his book, Thomas Friedman was quoted as saying “Netscape brought the internet browser alive” (“The World is Flat”). Ordinary people were now able to access information in the form of documents, graphics, and the like from various sources.

Netscape was also responsible for commercializing open transmission protocols for the internet. In essence, these protocols prohibited any one company from dominating the internet. As a result, internet-usage became much more interconnected. In his lecture, Friedman uses the example of a husband and a wife—one who was using CompuServe for e-mail, the other using AOL. At this point in time, communication was difficult. However, when Netscape went public, these walls were essentially “knocked down,” and communication became much simpler and much more convenient (“The World is Flat”).

Lastly, Netscape was responsible for what became known as the “dot com boom.” The so called “boom” happened when trillions of dollars were invested in fiber-optic cables. In brief, these cables connected people in the United States with people in foreign countries. As Friedman said in his lecture, we virtually “became next-door neighbors overnight.” Additionally, this also made communication less costly for millions of people. Instead of communicating by mail or telephone and paying a fee, people were now able to connect with one another through the internet. In fact, it is safe to say that communication became “free” (“The World is Flat”).

Although Netscape brought the internet to life and contributed to our technological advancement, it is the most significant flattener for one reason: it eventually led to Friedman’s eight additional flatteners. These flatteners include the development of work-flow software, uploading, outsourcing, off-shoring, supply chaining, insourcing, informing, and “The Steroids.” Each of these flatteners would contribute to the globalization and “leveling-out” of our society.

Source:
Lecture: “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53vLQnuV9FY