I found this blog on the NY Times website about a technological creativity festival that recently took place in Oregon. At the conference, many developers of new technology--technology that will serve to connect people all over the world--spoke. However, the emphasis of the conference was NOT on the technology itself, but rather on the people that have used their creative abilities in developing and/or using new technology. According to the article, the festival was meant to "emphasize a new economy that is being reshaped."
I think this directly relates back to Friedman's flat world argument. The Internet connects people from all over the world, and allows people to fully explore and utilize their creativity, regardless of location. In this sense, the economy indeed is being reshaped. The article goes on to describe the new economy: "It defies tradition and prizes creativity, seeks direct contact with customers and an audience, and formalizes that process and scales it, so that instead of asking your relatives to finance your next film, people can make use of the network effect and generate support, social and financial, from a large network of people online." Indeed, the Internet not only cuts out the middle man, it exponentially expands the market.
The market can only be expanded to the point that people know about, have access to, and understand the new technology. Though the conference provided entertainment and a forum to celebrate creativity, it also posed these issues to conference-goers. Ensuring that people from all over the world are able to use new technology may undermine the relative dominance of the U.S. and other world powers, but more importantly, in the long-term all will benefit from a free flow of ideas and creativity.
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