20 Revista Informatica Economică nr. 1(45)/2008 Knowledge Society and the flat World of Thomas L. Friedman Dana Ramona ANDRIŞESCU Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, “Al.I.Cuza” University, Iaşi [email protected] The traditional society became lately the knowledge society. As the name states, know- ledge is the most important asset of our times. There are different opinions on knowledge so- ciety and on globalization, but we will deal in this paper with Thomas Friedman’s flat world. The world got smaller with the developments in information and communication technology. Globalization has three periods and ten flatteners widely described by Friedman in his book. Technology changes the way we communicate, collaborate and share our knowledge. Keywords: knowledge society, information technology, globalization, flattener. ntroduction tion, it is above them, it becomes economic I“The World is Flat” is a new vision on in- asset. This asset led to knowledge society. formation and communication technology’s Yi-chen Lan mentions Peter Druker which capabilities from the information and know- saw the transformations that took place in so- ledge dissemination point of view. The first ciety. The later said that the main resource in edition appeared in 2005 edited by Farrar, a society is knowledge. The industries made Straus and Giroux, fallowed by two others the transition from goods producing and dis- the next years. Even though there are lots of semination to information and knowledge. writings about the information technology, Knowledge becomes an important resource Thomas L. Friedman brings something dif- and instrument of innovation that gives its ferent with the writing style and the examples owner competitive advantages. As Yi-chen given at all the subjects treated in his book. Lan states, knowledge is a set of rules, laws Beside the computer science parts the author and systems that communicate through ma- contributes with his personal experience on nipulation and information processing. Bryan globalization. He focuses on this subject and Bergeron2 defines knowledge as „informa- relies on economics, computer science, social tion that is organized, synthesized, or sum- life. We will try next to bring forward some marized to enhance comprehension, aware- information on knowledge society and we ness, or understanding. That is, knowledge is will focus especially on Friedman’s globali- a combination of metadata and an awareness zation and the flatteners. of the context in which the metadata can be applied successfully”. Knowledge society Joel Mokyr3 states that knowledge is actually It would be a very big mistake to confound what the person thinks that it is true. In our the term information with that of knowledge. opinion knowledge is information processed Knowledge1 is related to people and cannot by our brain and used as know-how for dif- be reduced to a set of “0” and “1”, the way ferent purposes. information is represented. It has an “institu- Knowledge society’s origins (or knowledge tionalized” dimension: it is recognized by a community and is related to other know- ledge, uses and certain applications. In the in- formation society, it plays a main role. Even though it does not have the same characteris- 2 Bergeron, B., Essentials of Knowledge Management tics in the terms of processing and dissemina- ,John Wiley & Sons, U.S.A., 2003, p. 10 3 Mokyr, J., The Knowledge Society: Theoretical and Historical Underpinnings from The Gifts of Athena: 1 Weert, T., Education and Knowledge Society, Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy, Kluwer Academic Publisher, Geneva, 2004, p. 28 Princeton University Press, 2002 Revista Informatica Economică nr. 1(45)/2008 21 based society) 4 can be traced in papers writ- meanings for each individual according to his ten around 1960 by Fritz Machlup and Peter activity domain globalization has many defi- Druker. First proposed the term of know- nitions. In one way will be defined by the ledge industries (1962), the second know- sociology and in another by the economist. ledge work and knowledge worker (1969). But, we can explain it in general, without re- The skepticism for the knowledge society ferring to a certain field. Therefore, globali- concept has at its base the idea that the hu- zation is defined as global integration of eco- man society has always been based on know- nomical, political, religious and social sys- ledge and the new brought in contemporary tems. Globalization is also about the disap- society of today refers only to the electronic pearance of the borders for knowledge dis- communication and information processing semination. This is why knowledge society support. A differentiation between informa- becomes global, thanks to the information tion society and knowledge society must be and communication technology. made. While information society is in tech- “The global playground is flattening” said nologies developments and strategies for Thomas L. Friedman. After a laborious do- their implementation, knowledge society5 is a cumentation and interviews with the most society that creates, shares and uses know- important people of today, he has published ledge for people’s prosperity and welfare. “The World is Flat”, a daring history of the The main factor for knowledge society’s de- 21st century. Declared one of the best opinion velopment is innovation market demand and leaders of The United States, he deciphers lifelong learning, which require continuous the secrets and lights up the mechanisms of improvement working conditions, productivi- technology, business and politics of this new ty and efficiency. Knowledge society uses world. When we take a look at the title of problem solving instruments. We can men- the book our mind goes back into history and tion here high speed computers, networks, in- not in the present. But for saying this, Fried- formation acquisition and so on. Develop- man has his arguments in the field of tech- ment of this society requires continuous nology. The developments that took place in knowledge discovery, assimilation and or- the last decades, interconnect the world, and ganization. Knowledge society6 implies a involve us in the globalization process. new economy, in which innovation process Friedman’s flattening is at the level of infor- (assimilation and new knowledge conversion mation and knowledge sharing. for creating new goods and services) is the core. It has a global character and therefore The World is Flat has a main part in globalization process. In- After Thomas L. Friedman, the author of the formation revolution and era, in which we book „The World is Flat” globalization has are, are defined by economical, social and three eras: political globalization. While the “globaliza- 1.Globalization 1.0. began with the discovery tion” term is widely spread and used, there of the new world in 1492 by Columbus and are different definitions and understandings lasted until around 1800. The author states of this phenomenon. Because it has different that this era made the world smaller. The flat- teners were the world’s states that tried to in- fluence and dominate the world. This era was 4 Filip, G.F., Dragomirescu, H., in Roşca, I.G., sustained by the use of natural resources such Knowledge Society, Economy Publisher, Bucharest, as wind and horse power. 2006, pp. 18,19 2.Globalization 2.0. between 1800 and 2000, 5 Digital Strategy, Glossary of Key Terms , period in which the world got smaller. It was http://www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz/templates/Page___ _60.aspx the birth of multinational companies that be- 6 Drăgănescu, M., Information and Knowledge Socie- came global in search of new markets, work ty. Vectors in knowledge Society in Filip, F.G. (coor- force and natural resources. This era has been dinator), Information Society. Knowledge Society, Ex- influenced by steam motors, railway, auto- pert Publisher, Bucharest, 2001, p. 45 22 Revista Informatica Economică nr. 1(45)/2008 mobile, telephone, computer, telecommuni- world becomes flat for him. He can have cation, interconnecting the whole world. meetings with his partners, clients, suppliers 3.Globalization 3.0. began with the 21st cen- in real time without being at the same place. tury. It’s a new era, the world became very In one of his interviews, which can be watch- small. While the first two globalization ed online on New York Times site8, newspa- waves were influenced by the countries and per for which Friedman is writing, he states multinational companies, the present wave is that the main technologies that led to globali- led by the individuals that globalize. The zation are the personal computer, Internet dominant factor is software and the Internet. and software revolution. The flattening of the These tools, allow individuals, ordinary world is taking place because of the platform people, to connect directly amongst them and created by people, for people, for education, share information and knowledge between communication, interconnecting, in few them, in communities too, just by one mouse words, a real technological revolution. click. The technology connecting platform allows The new wave of globalization coincides people to communicate, collaborate, and es- with the transformation of world’s economy pecially innovate. Therefore, they have the into knowledge economy or knowledge ability of knowledge sharing, acquisition and based economy. In comparison with the old use for any type of activity. The flattening of economy, with activities for resource the world, as Friedman states, took longer processing, knowledge economy processes than world’s creation by God in six days, 10 technology and information. For some tech- “major political events, innovations, and nological fields, it took place a real know- companies” contributed to this process. Same ledge explosion. Modern technology (the time with the beginning of the flattening, we present one) motivates the individual more entered in a new stage of human’s history; than before. If he wants, he can access very we are witnesses of the digitisation, virtuali- easy and fast information, knowledge.