LIGO Hanford Observatory Head Fred Raab moderated a discussion of Thomas Friedmann's The World is Flat for the final event in the 2007 version of the Mid-Columbia Literary Festival (LitFest). Panelists included Dr. Bruce Hawkins, Superintendent of Educational Service District 123, Professor Leonard Orr, Academic Director of Liberal Arts and Professor of English, WSU Tri-Cities, and Michael Hartwig, Chief Operating Officer of Advanced Imaging Technologies in Richland.

Raab organized the discussion around a series of questions that probed Friedman's major themes. In a flat world:

• What are the sources of wealth?
• What will be the roles of manufacturing and services?
• Will face to face interactions be devalued?
• How should we educate people?
• What will be the roles for large and small urban areas and for rural areas?
• How should society handle the dislocations of the expected rapid change?
• Will the changes really continue to be as rapid as envisioned in the book? Will we ever go back? Can we over-react to flattening influences?

CBC's Gjerde Center served as the evening's venue. Litfest is sponsored anually by CBC, the Mid-Columbia Library Foundation and a number of local partners.