• 30Sep

    It’s the self-discipline, stupid!

    Digital Culture, Technology rules us No Comments

    Nick Carr–featured in ON earlier this year–has made another big splash with “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, his cover story in the June 2008 issue of Atlantic Monthly, adding a well-crafted argument to a growing crescendo of voices warning of the dire impact of the Internet on children, adolescents, and adults. Before this current bout of technology-is-bad-for-us (and the numerous counter-arguments, e.g., Tom Davenport and Paul Hemp), we heard the same warnings about the impact on our brains of television and computers (sans Internet). And before that, radio. And so on, all the way back to the invention of writing.

    Fear of technology on the one hand and blind adoration of it on the other hand stem from the same misguided attitude—the notion that once tools are developed they become independent of us and can control our destinies: Technology can liberate or destroy us. This is tantamount to believing that the nasty cut I got on my finger from the kitchen knife is the knife’s fault. No: I got a cut because I wasn’t careful how I handled the knife. Tools don’t affect us, they are there for us to use and be affected as we choose to be affected.

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  • 12Sep

    The next big thing

    Predictions No Comments

    On my office wall is a poster titled “Computing advances to the NeXT level” and dated October 12, 1988. I got it after watching Steve Jobs unveil his next big thing before a standing-room only crowd at Boston’s Symphony Hall: An all-black, beautifully-designed “workstation” with a brand-new optical drive (no hard disk drive in the computer of the future according to Jobs) that played a duet with a human violinist.

    That night I sent a gushing memo to my colleagues at DEC, telling them that the future has arrived and that Jobs education-sector-first marketing strategy was brilliant. NeXT Computer, Inc. went on to sell only 50,000 beautifully-designed “cubes,” getting out of the hardware business altogether in 1993.

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  • 12Sep

    A (very short) history of Enterprise 2.0

    Enterprise 2.0 No Comments

    At the height of its power in the late 1980s, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) had more than 120,000 employees worldwide. They were connected by Easynet, the largest private network in the world at the time, and by VAX Notes, arguably the world’s first Enterprise 2.0 tool.

    In the more than 10,000 communities of VAX Notes, DEC employees collaborated and shared information on everything from product development to marketing programs to personal hobbies. As one VAX Notes user said, “No longer should a network be considered as the collection of machines and the wires that connect them, but rather as the collective intelligence of the people the network brings together.” 1

    This has been true since the advent of the modern corporation when, for the first time, a vast number of people were brought together to work, in specific functions and specialties, for a common purpose. Andrew Carnegie may have nailed the most important success factor for any corporation or organization, then and now, when he said: “The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it.” 2

    The adoption and adaptation of Web 2.0 tools for business use, which has resulted in a proliferation of Enterprise

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  • 12Sep

    What color is your cloud?

    Cloud Computing, Information Management, Predictions No Comments

    In March 2008, EMC released IDC’s update to its digital universe forecast, available at www.emc.com/digital_universe. It turns out the digital universe is already bigger and growing faster than estimated last year and is projected to reach close to 1,800 billion gigabytes (1,800 exabytes) of information newly created in 2011. An important characteristic of this digital universe has not changed: 70% of the information in it is created by individuals, but organizations are responsible for the security, privacy, reliability, and compliance of 85% of the digital universe.

    IDC’s estimates help us size the cloud in “cloud computing,” the latest concept to ignite industry excitement, trepidation, and various strategic actions. As with other buzzwords, this one lacks a common definition and encapsulates many unrelated recent developments: a new way to deliver information technology as a service, “Web 2.0” tools, and new Web-based content aggregators.

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