Chapter 5 Chapter 2 10 Powers to Flatten the World (2)

Strive to keep the World Wide Web open, non-proprietary and free to browse. "He popularized" a relatively easy-to-learn coding system—HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)—that later became the lingua franca of the Web Extensible Markup Language, or XML), is the method by which web content creators put colored and underlined links into their text, add images, and so on.He designed a URL allocation scheme, or Uniform Resource Locator (url, universal resource locator), to assign a specific location to each web page.He also created a set of rules to allow these files to be connected to various computers through the Internet.He called this set of rules the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP, HyperText Transfer Protocol).

On the seventh day, Berners.Lee cobbled together some of the first (but not the last) browsers for the World Wide Web, which allowed users everywhere to see his creation on their computer screens. In 1991, the World Wide Web debuted, instantly bringing order and transparency to the chaotic cyberspace. Since then, the World Wide Web and the Internet have merged, and users have often increased exponentially.In just five years, the number of Internet users has risen from 600,000 to 400 million.This shows that, on average, the number of users doubles every 53 days. "As important as Tim Berners-Lee's inventions were commercial browsers that were easy to install and use.

Various browsers were invented by other scientists to browse this early Web site, but the first popular browser was created by a new company in Mountain View, California, Netscape.Netscape went public on August 9, 1995, and the world has changed since then. Legendary venture capitalist John.Doerr's company, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, backed Netscape."The listing of Netscape woke up the world to the existence of the Internet. Before that, the Internet was only known to a few people," Doerr said. Netscape contributed to the flattening of the world in several ways.first.It promoted the use of commercial browsers. Netscape's browser not only activated the Internet, but also made it easy for ordinary people between the ages of 5 and 85 to learn to surf the Internet.

The more active the Internet, the more Internet users want to be able to do different things online, which further promotes the innovation of computers, software and communication networks.Just 15 days after Netscape went public, Microsoft launched the Windows 95 operating system and it was quickly recognized by most people around the world.Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 95 has built-in support for surfing the Internet, so that not only the browser, but all computer applications can have a relationship with the Internet. In retrospect, Netscape's meteoric rise came about because millions of computers were already equipped with modems.This is the cornerstone of the development of Netscape.What Netscape did was to add a new application software to these computers-the browser, to make computers more useful to people.This in turn has led to a surge in demand for digital products and a boom in the Internet, as investors have discovered that if data, inventories, commerce, books, music, photos, and entertainment are all digitized and distributed and sold online, the The demand for related products and services will be endless.But it also led to a dot-com bubble and overinvestment in fiber optic cables.Eventually, these developments connected the entire world, and suddenly, without anyone planning, Bangalore, India, became a suburb of Boston.

When I was with Jim, the ex-CEO of Netscape.When Barksdale talked about the book I was writing, I told him that the first chapter of the book was about 10 days, 10 things, and 10 trends that made the world flat.I also told him that the first day was November 9th and explained to him the significance of this day.Then I said, "Let me see if you can guess the second date - what is the significance of August 9th." It took Barksdale just 1 second to answer me and said, "That's It was the day Netscape went public." Few doubt that Barksdale was one of America's great entrepreneurs.He helped pioneer FedEx's overnight delivery service before moving to McCaw Cellular, which he helped found and its 1994 merger with AT&T.Then he was found by a headhunter and became Jim.Clark and Mark.CEO of Mosaic Communications, a new company Andreessen co-founded. In mid-1994, Clark and Anderson, the founders of SGI (Silicon Graphics), jointly established Mosaic, which was soon renamed Netscape.mark.Anderson is a young genius computer expert.He led a project at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois that led to the development of the first truly efficient web browser, Mosaic.Clark and Anderson quickly saw the great potential of the browser software, and they decided to join forces to promote its commercialization.As Netscape grew, they turned to Barksdale for guidance on the best way to take Netscape public.

We're all used to the browser by now, but it's certainly one of the most important inventions in modern history. When Anderson was at the NCSA Center at the University of Illinois, he discovered that while personal computers, workstations and basic networking allowed people to transfer files over the network, it wasn't exciting enough.Because there was absolutely nothing to browse, no user interface to display content from other sites.So Anderson and his collaborator Eric.Biener has developed an integrated diagram that can run on most computers, which is the Mosaic browser.Anderson put a lot of energy into listening to users and making continuous improvements to the browser to make it easier and more popular.Mosaic Browser makes it possible for idiots and scientists, students and children, grandpas and grandmas to use the Internet.

"When we launched Mosaic in 1993, we had 12 users, and I knew all of these people," Anderson said. There were only 50 websites, and most of them were single pages. "Mosaic received funding from the National Science Foundation, but the money was not used to develop Mosaic itself. The main task of our group is to build software that allows scientists to remotely use supercomputers, and to link these computers together with the National Science Foundation's network.So we built the earliest browser, allowing scientists to browse each other's research results.I see this as a positive feedback loop: the more people with browsers, the more people want to go online, and the greater the incentive to add content, apps, and tools to the web.The cycle is unstoppable.When we first started developing these software, we weren't sure that many people would use them, but then we found out that if anyone uses them, everyone will use them.The only question now is how quickly these software will spread. "Indeed, everyone who tried to use the browser, including Barksdale, was amazed. Every spring, Fortune magazine listed the 20 coolest companies," Barksdale recalled. In 1994, Mosaic is also one of them.Not only did I read about Clark and Anderson, but I said to my wife at the time, "Honey, they have a really great idea." A few weeks later, I got a call from a headhunter asking me to go to Mosaic Company as CEO. I started experimenting with the second version of the Mosaic browser and found myself becoming more and more attached to it.” Since the late 1980s, people have been creating databases on the web.Barksdale said that after speaking with the head of the mosaic company, he went home and called all three children to the computer, asking each of them to come up with a topic they wanted to browse online, then search, and the final search results Every child was surprised, "This made me sure about the development prospects of Mosaic Company, so I called back the headhunting company and said, I agreed."

Netscape's first commercial browser, which can be used on IBM, Apple Macintosh or Unix computers, was launched in December 1994, and it completely monopolized the market within a year.If you are an educator or non-profit, you can download Netscape for free.If you are using it personally, you can try the software for free and then decide whether to buy it.For corporate use, you can try it out for 90 days."The rationale here is, if you can afford it, buy it. If you can't afford it, use it," Anderson said. "Why? Because all the free trials fuel the growth of the web. This is also very beneficial to all paying customers." Barksdale said: "People can download Netscape's browser and try it for free for 3 months. Big businesses and governments can network and publish their information, and Anderson's Invention that made the Internet accessible to ordinary people. It was a real revolution. We said, 'The web will just grow, grow, grow.'"

Nothing could stop that, and Netscape was another very important flattening factor: it made the web truly interoperable.You can recall that during the Berlin Wall-PC-Windows phase, individuals and companies with e-mails were not randomly networked.The first Cisco network router was actually invented by a couple at Stanford University who wanted to send emails to each other, but there was no Internet connection between PCs and mainframes at the time, so they had the impetus to innovate."Corporate networks at the time were private and not connected to each other," Anderson said. "Each party had its own format, data program, and way of making catalogs. So when the Internet emerged as a public and commercial model, There was a real danger that he might not be able to actually connect to the Internet either.” In 1995, if Joe, who was working in the accounting department, wanted to get the latest sales figures from his PC, it was very difficult for him to do so because The sales department and the accounting department use different systems, as if one speaks German and the other speaks French.Joe said, "Give me the latest shipment information that Goodyear gave us." That's when he would discover that Goodyear and his company were using a completely different system than the dealer in Topeka, Kansas. Yet another system.But when he got home, Joe found that his 7th graders were using the World Wide Web to study term papers, using open protocols

Browse the collections of French museums."It's crazy, there should be a fully interconnected network," Joe said. Anderson explained that before the Internet was commercialized, Burroughs.Lee (Berners-Lee), Bob. Kahn (Vint Cerf) and Vint.Scientists such as Bob Kahn have developed a series of "open standards" designed to allow everyone's e-mail system or university computer network to be interconnected, ensuring that no one person has a special advantage.These open standards mainly include FTP, HTTP, SSL, SMTP, POP, and TCP/IP. They allow digital devices to talk to each other. No matter what type of computer you use, you can be compatible with others.

And, no matter what network your business or home has, no matter what computer, cell phone, or portable device you use, they can transmit data online in a relatively secure manner.Each standard has a different function: TCP/IP is equivalent to the basic pipeline of the network or the basic track of the railway, on which all other programs are built and moved; FTP is responsible for moving files; SMTP and POP are responsible for moving e-mail, These e-mails are standardized, they can be written and read in different e-mail systems; HTML is a hypertext link markup language, which allows ordinary people to create web pages; the introduction of HTTP makes it possible to move HTML files freely , which also led to the birth of the World Wide Web.Finally, SSL was also used to provide security for web transactions as people began to use these web pages for e-commerce. With the development of browsers and the Internet, Netscape hopes that Microsoft, which has a huge market share, will not change these network protocols from open standards to private standards that only Microsoft users can use.Anderson said: "In order not to make these network protocols privatized, Netscape chose to commercialize them. Netscape not only brought us a browser, but also brought us a series of software products that run these open standards, so that scientists can They can easily communicate over the network, no matter what system they are using - supercomputer, Mac or PC. Netscape can give everyone a realistic reason to say, 'For everything I do and for all the systems I use, I want them to be based on open standards. ’ So anyone who wants to use an open standard will go to Netscape, where we’ll support them, or they’ll go to open source and get the same free standard, but no support, or they’ll go to Go to the private vendors and say to them, 'I'm not going to buy your private products again... I'm not going to buy you unless you can connect to a network that uses these open standards. "'Netscape pushed these open standards by selling browsers, and the public responded enthusiastically. Sun Microelectronics (Sun ) began to use their servers in the same way, and Microsoft, recognizing the importance of browsers, made its own The browser Internet Explorer becomes part of the Windows 95 operating system. These companies also realize that the public expects companies to compete on different applications.That said, the competition should be around what the public can do when they go online, not how they go online.So, after a few "format wars" by big companies, by the end of the 1990s the web platforms had converged, and people could use any computer anywhere in the world to connect to anyone else.Compatibility has proven to be far more beneficial to all parties than being fortified between networks.The integration of online platforms plays a huge role in flattening the world because it connects more people through the network. A lot of people are skeptical, saying it's too complicated a way to get online.Anderson recalled: "At that time, to go online, you had to have a computer and a modem. Some people would say, 'We have to spend a lot of time changing habits and learning new technologies.' But they learned very quickly, 10 years After that, the number of Internet users worldwide has reached 800 million. The reason is that once people find it necessary to change some of their habits, they are quick to do so. Human beings naturally seek to communicate freely with others.When you give them the means to communicate with others, they will overcome human and technological barriers and even learn new languages. "As Joel Cowley, IBM's vice president of corporate strategy, pointed out: "Netscape created standards for data delivery and presentation that were easy to implement and gave people room to innovate, so they spread rapidly around the world. "In the summer of 1995, Barksdale and his Netscape colleagues, together with their investment bank Morgan Stanley, traveled around the United States to promote the listing of Netscape. Barksdale said: "At the beginning, Morgan Stanley Leigh thought we could sell for $14 a share.Because of the good publicity, many people were interested in our stock, and they decided to raise the offering price to $28 per share.We were all in Maryland on the first afternoon before going public, and that was our last promotional stop.We all drove black luxury cars and looked like the Mafia.We had to pull into two gas stations in order to use their phones due to the lack of cell phone coverage where we were located.We called Morgan Stanley's headquarters and they said, 'We think the release price should be $31. ’ And I said, ‘No, we’re better off at $28. ’ Because I want people to classify us as a $20 stock instead of a $30 stock in case things don’t go well.However the next morning we opened at $71 and closed the day at $56, exactly 2x what I priced. " The reason why Netscape finally lost under the strong competitive pressure of Microsoft was mainly because Microsoft decided to bundle the browser Internet Explorer and the Windows operating system for sale. The court finally ruled that Microsoft's practice was a monopoly.Microsoft put more programmers into the browser than Netscape.Because Netscape expanded too fast, its front was stretched too far.These factors eventually led to Netscape's declining market share. In the end, Netscape was acquired by AOL for $10 billion.Although Netscape was a shooting star in a commercial sense, it was a star and had a brilliant trajectory. "We were profitable almost from the start. We didn't get into the dot-com bubble. We started the dot-com bubble," Barksdale said. This is indeed a terrible bubble. "Netscape went public," Barksdale said. "There were a lot of things going on. Technologists got excited about these new technologies, and businessmen got excited about the profits that these technologies could bring. The emergence of these young upstarts led others to follow suit. They think, 'If these guys can make a lot of money, so can I.' Greed is not a good thing - people think they can make a lot of money without putting in a lot of work, which naturally leads to overinvestment. People will even invest in really stupid ideas.” What convinced investors that there was insatiable demand for the Internet and Internet-related products?Simply put, it is digitization.Once the personal computer and Windows proved that it was possible to digitize information and process it on computers and word processors, and once the browser brought the Internet into the home, everyone wanted to be able to digitize everything so they could Better use of the network can be made.Thus began the digital revolution, a miraculous process of turning words, music, data, movies, documents, and pictures into bits and bytes that can be processed on a computer screen and stored in a chip. Or transmitted via satellite and fiber optics.I used to send mail through the post office, but with the Internet, I want to digitize the mail so I can send emails.Photography used to be a cumbersome process. I used to take pictures with a regular camera, and then hand the film to the grocery store, and they would send it somewhere to be developed.But once the Internet allowed us to e-mail photos all over the world, I didn't want to use film anymore.I can take photos with a digital camera, and the photos in digital format can be directly uploaded to the computer without developing them.Even I don't need a digital camera at all, I can take pictures with my mobile phone.In the past, I used to go to Barnes & Noble, the largest bookstore chain in the United States, to read and buy books, but with the Internet, I also browse books on Amazon's website.I used to go to the library to do my research, but now I want to Google or Yahoo to do my research.I used to buy CDs in order to listen to Simon and Garfunkel, and although CDs are already a digital form of music compared to records, now I prefer to be able to download music directly from the Internet to my i-Pod . Investors see this crazy digital trend and they say to themselves: "If everyone wants to digitize everything and spread it over the web, there will be an insatiable need for web service companies and fiber optic cables. If you invest in this field, you will never lose money! "That's where the bubble comes from. Overinvestment isn't necessarily a bad thing either -- as long as it can be corrected eventually.I can always think of Microsoft CEO Bill.Gates at a press conference during the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1999, at the height of the tech bubble.Gates was asked similar questions by reporters again and again: "Mr. Gates, Internet stocks are a bubble right now, aren't they? Aren't they a bubble?" Finally, a little irritated, Gates said to reporters : "Of course they are a bubble, but you didn't ask the point. The bubble brought a lot of new capital to the Internet industry, which is bound to drive innovation faster." Gates compared the Internet to a gold rush, to those who seek gold You'll make more money selling Levi's jeans, picks, shovels, and hotel rooms than just panning for gold.Gates was right: while bubbles are economically dangerous, potentially costing a lot of people money and a lot of companies out of business, they also drive innovation faster and faster, and even overinvestment can be profitable. Unexpected positive effects.As we have seen with the development of the railroad industry and the automobile industry, the overproduction of overinvestment can always have unexpected positive effects.The boom in dot-com stocks has led to overinvestment in fiber-optic cable companies, which have laid vast swathes of fiber-optic cables on land and under the sea, but have also dramatically lowered the cost of making calls and sending data. The first commercial installation of a fiber-optic cable system was in 1977, and since then fiber has slowly replaced copper wire as telephone lines because it carries data and voice faster.Fiber optic cables are made of optical fibers as thin as a human hair, and they are used to transmit digitized packets of information over long distances.Because these optical fibers are much thinner than copper wires, there are more optical fibers than copper wires for a given cable diameter, which means that the same cable can transmit more at low cost when using optical fibers. data or more voice.However, the biggest advantage of optical fiber is its bandwidth to carry signals over long distances.Copper wire can carry very high frequencies, but the signal starts to weaken after a few feet because of the parabolic effect.In contrast, optical fibers can not only transmit very high frequency optical pulses, but also do not experience significant signal attenuation within miles. A fiber optic cable manufacturer, ARC Electronics, once explained on its website that the way fiber optic cables work is to convert data or sound into optical pulses and then transmit them through fiber optic lines, which is naturally very different from the transmission of electrical pulses through copper wires. different.One section of this fiber-optic system is the transmitter, which first receives the electrical pulses of information (text or data) running down the copper wires of your home phone or office computer and then processes or converts these electrical pulses into optical pulses.Light Emitting Diode (LED) or Semiconductor Laser (ILD) can be used to generate optical pulses, which are then transmitted through fiber optic cables.The cable acts as a guide for light, sending optical pulses from one end of the cable to the other, and the receiver converts the pulses back into their original electronic digital form, which can be reproduced as an email message on your computer screen. The form can also be transformed into the sound in the mobile phone.Fiber optic cables are also great for securing communications, since they are very difficult to eavesdrop on. The prosperity of the Internet economy and the United States "Telecommunications Act (1996)" (Telecommunications Act of 1996) jointly led to the creation of the fiber optic investment bubble.The act allowed local and long-distance companies to infiltrate each other's territories, and it enabled a variety of new local exchange carriers to compete with Little Bell and AT&T in providing telephone service and infrastructure.These new network-based phone companies sprung up, offering a variety of services, and each wanted to own its own infrastructure.And it's taken for granted: the Internet boom has everyone thinking that the demand for bandwidth is doubling every 3 months and that the process will never stop.This was true for the first 2 years of the internet, but then the law of large numbers kicked in and the rate of doubling slowed down.Unfortunately, communication companies are not paying attention to the growing imbalance between needs and reality. The market is in the frenzy of network investment, and companies are just blindly expanding production capacity.A boom in the stock market means investing money is free.In 5-6 years, these communication companies have invested about 1 trillion US dollars in laying various optical cables, and no one has doubts about future needs. At the time, few companies were crazier than Global Crossing, a company that laid fiber optic cables around the world for emerging telecom operators, founded by Gary in 1997.Winnick was founded and went public the next year. Robert, who has only been CEO of the company for 1 year.Ananziada once signed a terrible contract - Nair of the Corporate Library (Corporate Library).Minow thinks it's the worst contract in America.The contract actually stipulated that Annandz Adah's mother could go to visit him once a month in first class, and he could also get 2 million shares of the company as a signing bonus at a price of $10 per share below the market. Henry, now a senior executive at Warburg Pincus.Schachter, who worked for Lucent during the dot-com boom, describes the situation this way: "The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was significant because it allowed local exchange operators to compete with each other and with traditional local exchanges like Belle Jr. Telephone companies compete. These companies found a company like Globe that specializes in laying cables, so that they can compete with AT&T and MCI in long distance business, especially international business. Everyone thinks this is a good start, And it's never going to stop. Everyone thinks the pie is going to grow infinitely bigger, so every company thinks, 'I'm going to lay fiber optic cable before you, so I'm going to have more market share than you.' ’ So they all produced as much as they could, thinking they would get their market share. "Later, although B2B and e-commerce emerged as originally envisioned, and many unexpected sites such as eBay, Amazon, and Google grew rapidly, the capacity they could occupy was compared to the investment made during the dot-com boom. It can only be regarded as a drop in the bucket. Long-distance calls have dropped from $2 per minute to 10 cents per minute, while data transmission is actually free. Mike, CEO of the Internet phone company Tellme Networks. Mike circa June 2001 In an interview with the CNET news website, he said: "The telecom industry is completely developed by investment. They have buried too many optical cables underground and brought themselves into a brutal price war. It will be a disaster. "It was a disaster for many companies and their investors (Global Telecom filed for bankruptcy in January 2002 with $12.4 billion in debt), but consumers also benefited from it. The national highway system built in the 1950s not only flattened America, breaking down regional disparities, but also made it easier for companies to move to the lower-cost South, as labor and goods moved easily across the country. Today The laying of optical fiber "highways" around the world has flattened developed countries, broken the shackles of regionalism, created a more complete global business network, and allowed service and knowledge jobs to be easily transferred to low-cost nation. (It is worth mentioning that the fiber-optic highway in the United States does not reach the doorstep of Americans. Although many American communication companies have spent huge sums of money to lay long-distance fiber-optic cables from the United States to India, due to the "Telecommunications Act (1996)" Allowing competition between local US Internet companies and phone companies, so broadband is only popular in office buildings, business costs are reduced, and even Indian companies that cooperate with these companies benefit from it, but American families did not enjoy it at the time benefit from cheap broadband service. That has only recently changed.) Unlike other forms of network overinvestment, the effects of investing in fiber-optic cables are permanent: Once the cables are laid, they are difficult to dig out, so when telecommunications companies go bankrupt, banks usually take them over and take the original $1 The laid cables are sold for 10 cents to new companies, which continue to use them, often at a profit.Because there are many fibers in each cable, and each fiber can carry a lot of data in 1 second, these cables were not initially laid to the maximum efficiency of the fibers. But as the technology improves, the amount of voice and data that can be transmitted per fiber increases and the cost decreases.It's like on a national highway, the initial speed limit is 50 miles per hour (1 mile = 1.609 kilometers), and then gradually increased to 60, 70, 80 miles, and finally 150 miles, and there is no need to worry about traffic accidents .The same is true for the optical fiber "highway", but it has expanded from domestic to international. Anderson started his own high-tech company, Opsware Inc, after leaving Netscape. He said: "The most profound change I feel today is that a 14-year-old kid, whether he is in Romania, India, Russia or Vietnam, can use all kinds of information, tools and software at will, so I am sure The next Napster will come from a non-mainstream country. Since biotechnology is less and less required to be done in the laboratory, all kinds of chromosome data can be obtained online, so you can even invent vaccines on the computer.” I think Anderson touched on something unique about the flat world and globalization 3.0.When Anderson first created Mosaic, he had 12 scientific researchers with different backgrounds, but today we will witness the emergence of human mosaic, driven by individuals and groups with more diverse backgrounds, they come from all over the world, There are both mainstream groups and non-mainstream groups, and they will set off a new wave of innovation.Shortly after my conversation with Anderson, the July 15, 2004 issue of The New York Times ran a front-page article titled "U.S. Approves Import of 3 Cancer Treatment Drugs from Cuba."The article stated that the federal government approved a California biotechnology company, Cancer Vex, to license three types of cancer treatment drugs imported from Cuba. This is a special case under the United States' strict restrictions on trade with Cuba. The director of Cancer Vex said: "This is the first time that a US biotech company has been licensed to operate drugs imported from Cuba. According to industry insiders, Cuban biotechnology has always been quite prominent in developing countries. .Cuba has invested more than 1 billion US dollars in the construction of research institutions in the west of Havana, and many researchers there are well-educated in Europe. "To summarize: The PC-Windows phase was about my interaction with my computer, and my internal corporate network; the Internet-email-browser phase now flattens the world, and it's mostly about The relationship between me and my computer and other people and their computers (the function of e-mail), and the relationship between me and my computer and other people's websites (the function of the browser). Simply put, the PC-Windows phase brings Then came the Netscape browser - the phase of email, both allowing more people around the world to communicate and interact freely. The fun is just beginning.This stage is nothing more than the basis for the next stage of flattening the world. No. 3 Motivation - Workflow software: let your application software talk to each other. In the winter of 2004, I met Imachi at a conference in Silicon Valley.Scott.Haydn, who owns a top-notch animation company called Wild Brain in San Francisco that makes films and animations for Disney and other studios.At the time I was inspired by venture capitalist John.At the invitation of Duer, he introduced some of the viewpoints in this book to several companies he invested in. Haydn and I got along very well, and he emailed me afterwards: "I'm sure there were plenty of theologians, geographers, and phrasalists in Magellan's time who wished the world wasn't round but flat. I believe the world It's flat, thank you for your support." When I asked him to elaborate on his point, Haydn explained to me how his cartoons are produced through the global supply chain.Immediately I understood his reasons for supporting a flat world."At Wild Brain, we literally built something out of nothing. We learned to take advantage of this flat world. We didn't fight it, we took advantage of it," he said. He invited me to watch them make the animation and really appreciate the flat world.At that time, they were producing an animation called "Higglytown Heroes" for the Disney Channel, which actually reflected the story of the American public becoming stronger after the "9.11" incident.海顿说：“海格莱镇是20世纪50年代的一个普通小镇。故事的主题是，每个在小镇上生活的普通人都是这个小镇的英雄——从中小学老师到送比萨的侍者。我们将制片过程外包到了世界各地。” 这个完全讲述美国人故事的动画片却由全球的供应链完成制作。海顿解释说：“录音通常在纽约或洛杉矶，设计和导演在旧金山，作者都在自己的家中，他们住在纽约、芝加哥、伦敦、佛罗里达等地，动画制作在班加罗尔。在班加罗尔有8 个工作小组专门配合8 个不同的作者。这种效率使得我们能够和50个'大腕'签约，让他们为26个片段配音。这种互动的录音/ 写作/ 动画制作过程让我们可以在不到半天的时间内请一位明星完成对某一角色在整个节目中的配音。我们每周会请两位大腕，比如，上周就是安妮。海切和斯莫奇。罗宾逊。从技术层面上讲，我们在网上完成这一切工作。 我们在办公室的计算机和写手的'足球'（可以连接任何cat-5 以太网电缆或无线宽带网的特殊笔记本电脑）上安装虚拟专用网（Virtual private network）。这种虚拟专用网让我们只需简单注册就可以在任何地方分享声音、图像、最新的剧本和各种动画设计。 因此，你如果想观看我们的整个制作过程，只要给你一个'足球'就行了。 你在家、办公室、宾馆房间或本地的星巴克（星巴克所有分店都可以提供无线宽带服务）联机、登录，戴上BOSE降噪音耳机，然后就可以听、看、读何评论了。 在长达11周的节目制作过程中，你可以每天24小时挂在网上，实时察看制作过程。 不过，如果你只看工作样片或剪辑过程，那就不必使用'足球'，一般的电脑就足够了。“海顿后来离开了野脑公司，但是我很高兴有机会采访这家公司，因为它是下一个创新阶段的一个很好的例子，它说明了继柏林墙-Windows阶段和网景阶段之后令世界变平的新因素。我称其为”工作流阶段“（work flow phase ）。柏林墙的倒塌是没有人能忽视的历史事件。网景上市也很是热闹了一阵。但是工作流软件的兴起是一场静悄悄的革命，很少有人注意到它的到来。到20世纪90年代中后期，工作流软件开始大兴于世，它对世界变平产生了巨大的影响。这一变化使得越来越多的人能够通过电脑处理以前必须依靠人工处理的商业信息，这方便了商业上的设计、展示、管理和合作。于是，我们可以在公司和公司之间、国家和国家之间进行更好的交流。 为了实现这一目标，必须在先前的创新的基础上，开发大量的新的软件。工作流软件的革命是这样发生的：柏林墙倒塌后，个人电脑、Windows 和网景浏览器让人们可以用前所未有的方式相互联络，然而人们很快就不再满足于浏览和发送电子邮件、实时信息、图片和音乐，他们希望能通过网络平台进行设计、创造、买卖、记录存货、替别人申报纳税、在世界的另一端帮别人读X 光片等。他们希望能在任何两地的任何两台计算机间完成这些操作。 工作流革命最初的进步是电脑和电子邮件的出现。在没有电脑和互联网的时候，工作流的程序是这样的：销售部门接听电话，并把订单写在纸上，然后把它递交到运输部门那里，运输部门完成发货后再到财务部门那里，让他们给客户开出发票。在柏林墙-Windows- 网景阶段，工作流已经简化了很多：销售部门可以通过电话，也可以通过电子邮件接受订单。然后他们会把订单输入电脑，把电子版本的订单通过公司内部的电子邮件发送到运输部门，然后让运输部门给客户发货并自动开出发货单。 电脑和Windows 操作系统的出现使得办公室里的每个人在其办公桌上就可以处理完文字、数据、图像的数字化，这比起纸张和打字机来说是一大进步。而且，如果公司内部使用的是同样的硬件、软件和电子邮件系统，那么就可以在公司的内部自由地传输数字化的信息。但是，在20世纪80年代和90年代初，公司内部使用的硬件和软件系统经常是不能兼容的。财务部发现有一种财务软件用起来最方便，但存货管理必须用另外一种软件，电子邮件又是另外一种不同的系统。于是，销售部门可能使用微软，而存货部门使用Novell或IBM 时，他们就不能相互交流，工作也就不能自由流动。每个部门在自己的房间内都提高了效率，但是涉及部门间的合作的时候，销售部门的人员还是得走到存货部门，和存货部门的工作人员交谈。最初的软件行业就像是一个糟糕的消防队。想象一些每个城镇的水龙头的口径都不一样。一旦你家里起火，如果本城镇的消防队能够把火扑灭，那么万事大吉。可是如果火势太大，必须请邻近城镇的消防队，你就会发现，他们来了也是白来，因为他们的水管接不到你家的水龙头上。 尽管能够把文字、音乐、图像和数据数字化、标准化已经是一大进步，但是为了实现公司内部业务的无缝衔接，为了和其他公司的其他电脑连接，我们必须做两件事情：第一，我们需要更多的通用的水管，也就是说通用的电脑语言和标准，以确保每个人的应用软件都能和别人的应用软件相联接。第二，我们需要程序员编写新的应用软件，这样就可以将数字化的数据、文字、音乐和图片转化为产品、电子商务网站、商务管理工具和娱乐方式。 软件行业首先推出了一个被称为SMTP的协议：简易邮件传输协议（simple mail transfer protocol ）。这一协议使得在不同的计算机系统上发出的电子邮件能够相互接收。当你给别人发送电子邮件的时候，就不必再担心他用的电脑或电子邮件系统和你的不一样了。突然之间，世界上出现了一个电子的邮递员，不管刮风下雨，他都能迅捷便宜地把邮件送到世界上的任何一个地方。 但是，仅有电子邮件是不够的。要让这个世界变平，公司内部的所有部门——销售、市场、生产、财会和存货——都必须能协调运作，不管每个部门使用的是什么电脑和软件。而要让这个世界真正变平，你所在公司的所有系统必须和其他公司的所有系统协调运作，也就是说，你的销售部门不仅要给你的财务部门发送电子邮件，还必须发送所有的报表。你的销售部门还需要把信息发送到你的供货商的存货部门。你的供货商的存货部门必须要和他的供货商的供货商联系，而那可能是一家中国的企业。 为了走出20世纪80年代和90年代软件和硬件各说各话的“巴比塔”（Tower of Babel），还必须有另一个突破。需要有在各个电脑之间输送资料的电子轨道，它是互联网和万维网世界的通行语言。HTML时的每个人都能够在网上设计和发布文件和数据，而且其他人在其他电脑上都能阅读和使用这些信息。HTTP是为了往网络上输送信息的计算机语言。TCP/IP（传送控制标准和互联网标准）是电子轨道。通过这种电子轨道你可以把你的网页上的信息在互联网上传播。（按照一个电脑技术网站Stepforth.com 的说法，TCP/IP的思路是把信息量大的数据分拆成只有几个字节的小包裹，通过网络将这些小包裹从一台电脑传送到另外一台电脑，然后在接受信息的电脑上将这些小包裹重新组合，恢复最初的文件。） Microsoft chief engineer Craig.芒迪说：“这些标准使得人们能够传递除了Word文档和电子邮件之外的其他信息。每个人都可以将任何一种文件——从亚马逊的网页到信用卡支付账单——从一台机器传送到另一台机器。你不需要知道发送信息的人使用的究竟是什么系统，就能够顺利地接收到发来的信息。”这使得从20世纪90年代中期起，工作变得扁平化。 indeed so.野脑公司需要可以无缝连接的工作流软件，这样才能在全球范围内组织起来制作动画片的团队。波音需要这种可以无缝连接的工作流软件，这样它就可以为全世界的顾客提供部件，使波音的设计师可以和俄罗斯、印度和日本的工程师一起合作。医生需要这种可以无缝连接的工作流软件，这样才能够把在美国照的X 光片传到印度，让印度的医生帮助诊断。爸爸和妈妈也需要这种可以无缝连接的工作流软件，这样他们的电子银行软件、电子经纪软件、电子邮件软件和处理图表的软件才能互相兼容，他们就可以用家里的笔记本电脑和办公室的电脑连接上。一旦每个人的应用软件和其他人的应用软件都能兼容，不仅工作的效率能提高，而且工作就可以被拆分并发送到世界的各个角落。 微软的芒迪说：“如果我们真的是想把工作自动化，那么仅仅让人和人的交流更容易是不够的，必须让机器和机器之间也能自如地交流，即使人们不去管理，无论何种电脑之间均应该能够互相沟通。”这带来了工作流软件的下一个创新。 使这一切在技术上变的可能的是一种新开发的数据表达语言XML （extensible markup language ）和他相关的传送协议SOAP（simple object access protocol）。微软、IBM和很多科技公司都对XML 和SOAP的开发做出了贡献，两者后来都被当作因特网的标准得以普及。他们使得工作流进入一个新的境界。这样我在自己的电脑上就能开出发货清单，我的电脑会自动地将这一资料发送给你的电脑，不需要任何人工的帮助。 微软的首席技术官芒迪说：“我们为全球劳动力创造了一个全球平台。” 概括来说，在20世纪80年代，人们开始使用个人电脑，将其自己的资料数字化。 然后他们可以将这些资料打印出来，交给其他人。接着，由于出现了通用标准，人们之间可以通过电脑和网络传输信息。最后，到了今天，机器和机器之间已经可以通过网络互相交流。 标准之上的标准我们会走向何处？如果HTML，HTTP，TCP/IP，XML 和SOAP变成了标准，那么软件公司就不会再为抢夺水龙头而争吵，他们会想方设法造出来更好的水管、更好的消防车。如果标准确立了，人们就会关注质量。换言之，如果人们能够自由地互相连接，他们就开始关注真正的价值附加。因此软件公司就开始去开发最有用、最方便的软件，方便人们的合作和创新。 与此同时，越来越多的标准出现了。不仅水管的标准有了，水管运送的东西也被标准化了。于是人们不仅能够和任何其他的电脑交换文件、图片和数据，而且文件和商业过程本身也被标准化了。我们不仅能够以标准化的形式存储文件（如用Word文本或网页），而且这些文件所代表的商业过程也被标准化了。IBM的乔尔。考利（Joel Cawley ）说：“当你申请抵押贷款、结账或买房子的时候，会有十几个由不同公司处理的过程和数据流程。一家银行审查你的贷款申请和信用记录、确定你的利率，然后这笔贷款会被转移到另外一个银行。”如果这些程序已经被标准化，经纪人就会把更多的精力用来处理您和您的需求，而不是忙着应付这些程序。我们已经看到标准化之后工资是如何发放的、电子购物的付款是如何支付的、音乐和照片是如何被存储的，但最重要的是这样一来供应链就可以被连接起来了。 比如，eBay可以让每一个人到网上交易，不管你用的是什么电脑，不管你是买方还是卖方，不过真正让eBay流行的是它采用了PayPal这一标准，所以买方可以很方便的向卖方付款。PayPal创建于1998年，是一套为了方便C2C 的货币支付体系。eBay上卖方和买方的交易就是一种C2C . 根据ecommerce-guide.com 的说明，如果使用PayPal，任何人只要有个人电子邮箱地址，就可以将钱汇给任何一个也有电子邮件地址的人，不管收款人有没有PayPal的账户。PayPal甚至不关心商业交易是否发生。如果办公室里有人想为他的一位同事组织晚会，其他的同事要凑份，他们就可以通过PayPal凑钱。组织者给大家发封电子邮件，告诉大家如何使用PayPal .使用PayPal可以通过三种途径汇款：使用信用卡、从支票账户转账或从PayPal账户划款。PayPal账户方便易用。作为付款人，你只需要提供名字、电子邮件地址、信用卡信息和需要寄送对账单的邮政地址。这些功能使得电子商务变得平坦，以至于eBay自己都感到吃惊。eBay的首席执行官梅格。怀特曼（Meg Whiteman）说，“在PayPal问世之前，我唯一能够汇款的办法是寄支票，没有能够通过电子系统付款的方式，而且小客户没有资格开立信用卡帐户。PayPal使得每个个人都可以接受通过信用卡的汇款。我要付款给eBay上的私人卖家，用信用卡支付就行。这确实使得竞争的场地更平，使得商业更加融合。”最终，eBay收购了PayPal，不是因为听从了华尔街投资银行家的建议，而是因为用户欢迎PayPal。 怀特曼（Whiteman）说：“我们最终发现，在eBay上有大约20% 的人说，'请使用PayPal付款给我'。于是我们想，什么是PayPal，他们是干什么的。一开始我们想开发我们自己的服务，即Billpoint ，但是到了2002年6 月我们发现顾客的意见是：”我们需要标准化的支付体系，我们想要的是PayPal，不是你们自己的那套，别再跟我们作对了。'最后我们发现，我们不得不把PayPal这个公司买下来，因为他们成了标准。 事实上，这是我们最成功的收购。“在工作流发展的下一个阶段，你就能够这样预约牙医：首先，预约牙医会有一个统一的标准。你可以通过语音指挥你的电脑安排一个预约。你的电脑会把你的语音转化为数字化的指令。电脑自动帮助你检查你的日程表，看看你的牙医哪一天有空，然后给你三个选择。你选择对自己最佳的日期和时间。离你的预约还有一周时间的时候，你的牙医的电脑会自动给你发一封电子邮件提醒你。到你的预约的头一天晚上，你的电话会收到你的牙医的电脑生成的留言，再次提醒你第二天的预约。 IBM 的战略规划师考利（Cawley）说，“为了实现这个梦想，我们还必须有更多的标准。我们需要更多的共同标准，这样才能一起做生意”。如果人们能够通过像XML 这样的交流标准互相联系，那么就能够把更多的人通过标准化的商业过程联系起来，就能够更方便地把工作分解并交给地球上不同地方的人们，生产效率就会提高，整个数字化世界会变得更好、更便宜、更快捷。人们就能够把精力专注于高科技和高附加值的产品。标准不会取代创新。考利（Cawley）说，他只会节省你的精力，让你更加关注更有价值的事情。 最新的超级标准工作流会发展到一个新的阶段。越来越多的标准被开发出来，人们可以更容易地描述和分享文件、更容易地分配工作，而且有些商业活动已经被标准化了（比如抵押或信用卡的支付）。在这些创新的基础上，一个新的革命即将到来。一种新的技术AJAX（JavaScript和XML ，asynchronous JavaScript and XML ）。AJAX提供了一种处理更多和更复杂的网上业务的更简便的办法，使用AJAX还能够节约成本。你可以在网上记录存货、保持和客户的联系、制定日程表、编制预算、管理人力资源等。在网上商业活动中，你在网上使用这些工具，并将你的资料保存在网上，而不是自己的电脑上。在不久的将来，这些网上的服务就将替代一些甚至所有的你现在用的商业软件。 这是工作流的一次大跃进。微软的另一位首席官雷。奥齐（Ray Ozzie ）称之为“互联网服务大裂变”。在网上提供服务的公司已经纷纷涌现。如果你向他们支付一笔费用，就能使用许多在网上提供的服务，这样你在网上就能够处理业务。 这些服务很像传统的软件程序，你可以用它处理很多商业活动。但本质的不同是这些管理工具、数据和照片都不是存在你的电脑中，它们被存在一个遥远的网站Salesforce.com的工作台。由于这些工具被放在网上，而且使用标准的网络格式写成的，任何一个能够上网的人都可以获得这些工具并互相交流。AJAX使得这一切成为可能。AJAX是一种网络开发技术，它能够把复杂的互联网商业软件放在网页上，通过浏览器，你可以像阅览Amazon.com的页面一样方便地看这些信息。AJAX能够处理所有的那些你在电脑上使用传统的软件完成的工作。每个用户每月需向Salesforce.com支付65美元，那些员工只有1~5 名的小公司只需要付17美元。你不再需要拥有自己的软件，向Salesforcew.com 租用就行。Salesforce.com的技术人员会负责这些软件的升级和维护。 Salesforce.com的执行副总裁，负责法律、政策和公司战略的肯。贾斯特（Ken Juster） 说：“我们可以每天升级，而且由于这些服务使用网络标准编写的，是在网络上发送的，所以世界上所有的客户在同一时间立刻就能够获得升级服务。我们不仅交流信息和数据，而且交流好的商业经验。不管是公司内部或是公司之间，都能交流经验。” 如果你的公司使用Salesforce.com提供的网上商业工具，可能你的工作人员会发现更有效率的做法。如果这种创新可以被标准化，你就可以再把这种创新介绍给Salesforce.com .别人可以使用你的软件，你也可以因为这种创新而收费。 通过这种方式，Salesforce.com把它的客户和合作者均变成了自己的销售力量和研发力量。 Salesforce.com的首席执行官，马克。本利奥弗（Marc Benioff）说：“我们为客户开发软件的速度远远没有客户自己为自己开发软件的速度来得快。”因为Salesforce.com提供了大量的商业处理软件，它们既需要依靠只有一个人的小公司，也需要依靠像IBM 这样的大公司。贾斯特（Juster）说他最喜欢的一个使用Salesforce.com的客户是在上海点正（Protime ）的总经理陆得。点正只有30多个员工，他们为那些在中国有业务的全球公司，如索尼、凯悦和雅诗兰黛提供电子商务解决方案。陆得的公司每年营业额超过100 万美元。他说：“我可以在网上用Salesforce.com处理所有的业务。使用这种网上服务，我们可以更专注于创造利润的活动、并能够将我们的成本降低。”比如，他可以使用Salesforce.com的网上电子邮件营销系统发出大量的电子邮件，也可以使用销售自动化系统处理销售前的数据，也可以使用顾客关系管理系统记录和公司所有顾客的互动。贾斯特（Juster）说陆得通过获得这三个软件的知识产权，可以以很低的资金建立自己的公司。 我得知一家用商业网络（Business Web）创建的新公司。这家公司是销售有机维生素的。他向雅虎付了一笔钱，只要有人搜索“有机维生素”，就会自动弹出该公司的广告。然后他使用Salesforce.com的平台进行后台管理。他找到了一个制造商生产有他自己品牌的有机维生素。几乎没有花任何钱，而且足不出户，他就可以借助雅虎的搜索能力和Salesforce的后台管理能力，建立自己的公司，和各大药品连锁店展开竞争。 商业网络给了像陆得这样的小企业主机会，让他们能够得到以前只有大公司才能得到的工具。商业网络也使得商业软件供应商的地位发生了颠覆性的变化。 下一步的演化将是在商业网络中出现像eBay这样的为商业服务提供交易的市场。 个人或公司，无论他们是在上海、班加罗尔还是硅谷，都能够自主地开发软件，然后把他们的软件放在像Salesforce.com这样的平台上，在这些网络的平台上向全球推销其设计，而不需要像现在这样必须投入巨额资金才能将软件商业化。Salesforce.com的首席执行官，本利奥弗（Benioff ）在2005年11月的一份公司报告中说：“这只是商业网络的最开始。软件行业正在经历一场前所未有的革命。20年前这曾是闻所未闻的。这一革命可以和个人电脑的出现媲美。新的互联网上的公司咄咄逼人，他们提供的服务将取代软件。微软希望你买更多的软件，我们想看到软件的末日。” 微软已经感到威胁。2005年11月9 日《纽约日报》报道说，雷。奥齐（Ray Ozzie ） 在公司内部的一份报告中已经提醒高级经理们，微软不得不经历巨大的变化，否则和那些提供网上服务的公司相比，微软将处于极为不利的地位。几天之后，微软宣布将提供两个新的服务：Windows Live和Office Live ，这其实就是Windows和Office这两种流行软件的网络版。几周之后，Google宣布将提供一个新的免费的、可下载的软件包，里面没有一个软件来自于微软。这太有趣了！ 毫无疑问，商业网络将改变微软。但我并不贬低微软，也不会把自己电脑里的软件都扔掉。我们的确将从一个公司都是独立系统的世界，过渡到一个公司变得互相联系、互相依赖的世界。每个公司，无论大小，都将能够在网络上发布客户想操作的系统，也可以从网络上租借任何一种它们喜欢的系统。虚拟公司出现了，而且其破坏力是强大的。因为他们使得小公司也能得到以往只有大公司才能拥有的东西。 但是请记住：当你获得了这些标准化的工作流工具的时候，别人一样会有。 你仍然需要自己的独特的产品或服务。你必须找到一种利用信息技术的独特方法，以发扬光大你的核心价值，不管这种价值是什么。在网络上花很少的钱就能够管理客户关系当然很好，能够有真实有效的工作流当然好，不过，首先你必须找到你自己的客户，这才是你的公司取胜的诀窍。这需要你有独到的见解、有创新精神，当然还需要有独有的软件或系统，这样你才能开发出独特的产品或服务。你的独有的能力将通过某些专有的算法、制造过程或软件开发体现出来。你不可能从书架上或网络上得到现成的东西，如果你能够做得到，你的竞争对手也一定做得到。如果你经营的是债券基金，所有的标准化的工作表能够帮助你实现无缝的债券交易。但你自己判断何时买卖债券的能力才是决定成败的关键。这就是为什么那些大的、传统的软件公司如微软或SAP 仍然能够存在，因为它们可以为其客户提供量身定做的服务。而且，正如微软已经做的，他们也在努力使其服务能在商业网络上获得。不管怎么样，我们所看到的工作流的革命将带来更多的试验和创新。在这场旋风中，更多的新产品和服务将出现，对量身定做的软件和IT系统的需求会带来其发展。当硝烟散去，我们看得清楚的时候，我们的工作方式、工作的流程以及我们开办公司的方式均会发生革命性的改变。 杰丽。劳（Jerry Rao ），在印度为美国人做财务服务的企业家说：“工作流平台能够让我们做福特曾经在制造业完成的那样的创新。我们将工作分开、使之标准化，并将其分配给能够完成得最好的人。由于我们是在网络上完成这些工作，相互合作的人不需要比邻而居。然后我们将所有的部分拿到总部进行组装。 这不是平凡的创新。这是一个重大的革命。这使得雇主在一个地方，但雇员可以在另外一个地方。工作流平台使得你能够创造一个虚拟的全球办公室，而且能够接触到全球的智慧。让他们实时地完成工作。我们是在一年365 天、一周7 天、一天24小时的工作。所有的这些变化在历史的一眨眼间便发生了：这些变化只用了2~3 天的时间。 " 创世纪：平坦世界的平台出现了我们需要在这里做个简单回顾，因为在这个时候——20世纪90年代中期——平坦世界的平台已经开始出现了。首先，柏林墙的倒塌，Windows 视窗的开启，内容的数字化和网络浏览器的推广极大地促进了人和人的交流，而工作流软件则是将应用软件联系在了一起，这样人们就可以得以处理所有数字化的内容，并且以前所未有的方式使用计算机和网络。 这种人和人之间交流的新水平再加上以网络为基础的应用软件间的工作流程序就会创造一个具有多种合作形式的全球新平台，这是世界变平的创世纪时刻，这意味着一切都开始成型，虽然世界要真正变平还尚需时日，但人们在这个时候已经感觉到了很多变化，忽然之间，人们发现，他们可以和世界更多地方的更多人展开分工合作，并且分享更多类型的知识。微软的芒迪称：“让世界变平成为可能的是拥有这些独特属性的平台的出现，这的确是具有持久重大意义的突破。” 在前三大因素作用下出现的全球平台让我们不仅可以相互对话，而且可以一起做更多的事情，IBM 的考利称：“关键的一点是，我们不仅比以前更加经常地相互交流，而且还能更多地开展合作——建立联盟、项目和产品。 以下6 种令世界变平的因素代表了这一平台带来的6 种新型合作方式。人们会利用这个平台开放源代码、开展外包、离岸经营、提供供应链、开展内包和提供信息服务等。每种合作形式要么是由这一平台直接造就，要么在它的推动下得到强化。就在越来越多的人学会以不同的方式开展合作的同时，我们也令这个世界变得更加平坦。 第4 大变平因素——上传（uploading ）驾驭社区的力量阿兰。科恩还记得他成年后第一次听说“阿帕奇”（Apache）的情形（这并不是什么西部牛仔和印第安人电影中的台词），那还是在20世纪90年代末网络经济的繁荣时期，他当时担任IBM 的高级管理人员，负责正在兴起的电子商务业务。科恩回忆说：“我率领的工作团队每年的预算为800 万美元。我们当时和微软、网景、甲骨文、太阳微电子等劲敌在电子商务领域开展竞争。IBM 还有巨大的销售团队专门负责销售电子商务软件。一天，我问手下的一个研发主管，'杰夫，请告诉我这些电子商务系统的研发过程。基础的网络服务器是什么？'他对我说，'是阿帕奇。'听到这个词，我首先想到的是以饰演西部片中硬汉出名的约翰。韦恩。我问，'什么是阿帕奇？'他回答说是网络服务器技术的一个共享软件程序，是网上一些人在开放源的聊天室里免费提供的程序。我被震惊了。我问道，'那你怎么购买呢？ '他说，'我不知道——但现在还没出过什么问题！'这就是我第一次听说阿帕奇……“ 他继续说：“你们应该还记得，当时微软、IBM 、甲骨文和网景都在努力建立商业网络服务器。这些都是大公司。忽然之间我的下属告诉我，他可以从网上免费下载这些服务器！这就好比说，你本来是让所有这些大公司的主管负责策划战略，可现在忽然变成由这些聊天室里的家伙掌管天下。我不停地问，'谁在运营阿帕奇？我的意思是，这些家伙都是什么人？'”的确，这些聊天室里的家伙在决定他们和你要用的软件，因为这些家伙组成的社区正合作设计新的软件，然后将其上传传向世界。这被称作社区开发软件。 但是，由于以平坦世界为平台，越来越多的家伙通过网络贡献自己的新闻和些许看法，而不是通过报纸这个中介。这就是所谓的博客（blogging）。图书馆里的一些家伙组成的社区在写自己的百科全书，将它们上传传向世界，来取代传统的书本样式的百科全书，甚至取代像微软电子百科全书的数字百科全书。这就是所谓的维基百科（Wikipedia ）。 宿舍里的家伙越来越多地把自己的歌曲、视频、说唱音乐和评论奉献给你、我以及全世界的人，来取代音像店和传统节目提供者。这就是所谓的播客（podcasting）。 亚马逊网站的家伙开始越来越多地自己写书评，跻身全球最重要的书评者之列，消弱了《纽约书评》及《纽约时报书评》这些传统书评者的垄断地位。我怀疑，亚马逊网站很快就能在网上发表你的整