"The World is Flat" was born in Tom Friedman's mind while he was in Bangalore, the technology hub of India. It came to him after hearing an Indian software executive explain how the 'world's economic playing field was being leveled'. Friedman came face to face with the realization that the world had changed - become flat- 'while he was sleeping' (to use his own words!)

The concept Friedman paints with the words "The world is flat" is indeed inspired and extremely ingenious. What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. While demystifying the new order that is now making its presence felt, Friedman gives due credit to the fact that the process had been happening for a while - that the signs were clear, only, the world had stopped paying attention to them.

What created the flat world? Friedman outlines ten forces that have had an impact on flattening the world and stresses technological forces. Paradoxically, the dot-com bubble played a crucial role. Telecommunications companies like Global Crossing had hundreds of millions of dollars of cash -- given to them by gullible investors -- and they used it to pursue incredibly ambitious plans to ''wire the world,'' laying fiber-optic cable across the ocean floors, connecting Bangalore, Bangkok and Beijing to the advanced industrial countries. The following dot-com bust, the Y2K crisis and the resulting inflow of business processes to India and other third world locations set the stage for the next phase of globalization - and the flattened world. Friedman discusses at length about the development of ''work flow platforms,'' software that made it possible for all kinds of computer applications to connect and work together, which is what allowed seamless cooperation by people working anywhere in the world.

Outsourcing features in the 'World is Flat' as a force to reckon with and which is here to stay. Friedman uses lively examples of his experience at the 24/7 Customer Contact center in Bangalore to illustrate how the company has adapted to the changing world economy and its demands extremely well - effortlessly able to prepare tax returns for Americans, take care of logistics for customers in the UK and even those in Canada. The fact that China and India loom large in Friedman's story because they are the two big countries benefiting most from the flat world. Friedman understands that China and India represent not just threats to the developed world, but also great opportunities. After all, the changes he is describing have the net effect of adding hundreds of millions of people - consumers - to the world economy. That is an unparalleled opportunity for every company and individual in the world.

He ends up, wisely, understanding that there's no way to stop the wave. You cannot switch off these forces except at great cost to your own economic well-being. Over the last century, those countries that tried to preserve their systems, jobs, culture or traditions by keeping the rest of the world out all stagnated. Those that opened themselves up to the world prospered. But that doesn't mean you can't do anything to prepare for this new competition and new world - a world that has become impossibly flat and will continue on this lateral trend.