Summer Reading I: The World is Flat

One our finest at PAS, recommended a book that he had been intending to read for quite some time, The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. 

If you’re in the business world today and plan to be there tomorrow, this book has some powerful insights that will pertain directly to your job as well.

In his book, Friedman shows how recent technological advances particularly in the areas of information technology have converged to create a global environment where resources and knowledge are able to connect as they never have before.  Globalization 3.0, he calls it.

Globalization 3.0 is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals like you and me, desktop freelancers and innovative companies – enabled by the technologies that connect us all.

Friedman’s premise is that the world has become so interconnected that it is flat!  And a flattening of the world is a good thing for business and people all over the globe. 

Many of the technologies we all use and I’ve referenced in this blog help make the world flat: Blogs (like this one), iPods (like our iPod analogy), Skype (where free is good), Google (raising the bar for web-based applications), and also the PAS software (with its web front-ends) all help make the world a flatter place.

Friedman is right – individuals like you and me, and innovative startups like PAS are helping make the world a flatter place.

Why just the other day, one of our customers voiced their satisfaction with how our Integrity product is helping to flatten their world and make them more nimble, reliable and profitable.

Flat is good.

This particular customer had our Integrity server software installed at their main IT office, with Integrity data collector nodes to interface to their automation systems (DCS, PI, APC, etc) deployed at their operating sites around the world. 

Now their engineers (or freelance consultants) can monitor the health of those systems from any network connection – anywhere in the world!

The world is indeed getting flatter…and PAS is proud to make it so!

© Copyright PAS 2006.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!