Isn't it time the IT industry set up an archive of past
products, before they are lost forever? asks Simon
Moores.
Reading the story that endangered species will be
recorded in anonline records "ark", I immediately
thought that this might have some connection with the IT industry
rather than the planet’s disappearing wildlife.
The connection, of course, lies with Hewlett-Packard creating
digital profiles of those species that haven’t yet been eaten, shot
or turned into fur coats or traditional medicine, and I wondered if
it was time to create to create an equivalent archive for the IT
industry.
After all, 20 years ago, the software industry in particular,
enjoyed a remarkably diverse ecology, with products such as
Lotus-1-2-3, SuperCalc, WordPerfect and many more pieces of
software.
Of course, this all happened before the internet, which means
that thousand upon thousands of pages of industry history, comment
and analysis are lost to the future, because many of the magazines
of the time and the companies behind them no longer exist.
Much the same argument applies to the software companies and
their chief executive officers. Whatever happened to the powerful
industry figures of the 1980s, with names such as Ray Noorda and
Jim Manzi? The answer is that the success of Microsoft and the
relentless march of consolidation squeezed 80% of the software
industry out of existence in the space of two decades.
As each year passes, choice becomes even more limited, until,
in the hardware industry at least, we are down to a handful of key
players, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, Dell and then,
possibly, Intel, Cisco and EMC.
Which companies are next? And should someone start an online
museum of software code? The problem with this idea is, of course,
copyright, even if the authors and companies have gone out of
existence.
A couple of years ago, I finally tracked down a software writer
whose application my own company was still selling to the police,
five years after his company disappeared, because his royalties
were building up.
The author in question had given up IT and was living in a
Christian commune in California.
In the end, I suspect, our choices will mirror the famous quote
from Henry Ford: “You can have any colour you like, as long as it’s
black” or, perhaps, even blue.
With the end of truly imaginative competition in this industry,
there’s a risk that we will witness a decline in innovation as the
highly conservative survivors concentrate more on consolidating
their hold on a particular niche rather than risk attempting to
expand their interests into the domain of the big gorilla next
door.
What do you think?
What products would you like to see go into the IT archive?
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Setting the world to rights with the collected thoughts and
opinions of leading industry analystDr Simon
Mooresof Zentelligence.
Acting globally, Zentelligence (Research) advises
governments, suppliers, business and the media on the evolution,
application and delivery of leading-edge technologies and
specialises in the areas of eGovernment and information
security.
For further information on Zentelligence and its research,
presentation and analyst services visitwww.zentelligence.com