Recently I picked up Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" and despite the lengthy and rather protracted details on certain points I found this to be an interesting read. The book basically outlines in detail 10 factors that Friedman identifies as flattening factors in technology and business that have made the world flat. The basic premise of the book is that the playing field is being leveled for people across the world through the Internet, web applications, outsourcing, and technology and the convergence of all of these things.

The book is more of an overview of the present state of business but it is written so well that Friedman gives you the sense that all of these high-technology things are still in our future. Friedman has a very impressive Rolodex and he definitely thumbed through it for his research on this one. I was also very impressed with his references he chose to use in building supporting facts for each of his ten points.

Friedman does seem to develop tunnel vision with regard to his main point and does not go into much detail on how this process is also deepening the digital divide. The world may be flattening for the people that have the skills, the equipment, and the infrastructure but what about those who don't which is the majority of the population of the world. The world may be flattening for the few but the rift between the technology haves and have-nots is becoming bigger.

As a technology professional I would recommend this read to anyone as it is very well written, concise, detailed (sometime overly), and I found it to be fairly inspirational at times as well. It does not contain to much technobable and what it does contain is explained in easy to understand terms. All and all this is a great book and I would recommend it for anyone.