Open question: What does a flatter World mean in terms of organizational Knowledge Management?

This is to start a discussion thread on the impact of our World getting flatter - mainly due to technological advances - on Organizations and their efforts to leverage their value-added Knowledge. Note: To get a really good sense of this flattening of the World, I advise you to read "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" by Thomas Friedman (2005)  http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/worldisflat.htm 

 Reem Saied gives a good short analysis of Freidman's book. http://reemsaied.blogspot.com/2005/05/world-is-flat.html 

 An initial assertion: A Flat World increases the power of individuals through their specific knowledge. Technological advances have made the World become “flat” and successful organizations of the future will be the ones that embrace this fact and take full advantage of it before their competitors. This increasingly flat World is described by Thomas Friedman as “[…] a global, Web-enabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration – the sharing of knowledge and work – in real time, without regard to geography, distance, or, in the near future, even language”. In such a World, it is clear that the span of influence of each individual is virtually the entire World. 

The key value-adding differentiator for individuals is their specific knowledge (as the sum of their skills, competences and experiences, modulated by their interpersonal qualities and cultural background). Peter-Anthony Glick Leveraging Organizational Knowledge