New to this forum and impressed by its wider perspective than elsewhere, I thought the following might be of interest:
Since 1995 innovation in technology has been stagnant, replaced by efforts to improve and replicate within the boundaries of what already existed. This has produced a complacent industry bloated with clones (and moans) with no sign of the mid-1980’s enthusiasm to use computerisation to advance our civilisation for the benefit of Society as a whole. How come the promising revolution got washed away in favour of pursuit of the frivolous?
I think the problem is that IT is currently seen as an end in itself, whereas it is a utility something like electricity. Imagine if electrical innovation had been confined to producing more and more power with no recognition of its application beyond various forms of lighting. Today, for most, office suites are doshed out to help with the work; isn’t it time to consider the kind of cross industry collaboration that resulted in the washing machine?
I see machines in the workplace that speed up communications but it seems required human time and effort has not been reduced. Are there machines that help with this? I have not found one, but I find appealing the idea of IT people bursting out of their bubble and joint venturing with practitioners to make specialist digital machines for diverse non-creative activities.
PS I use the term “digital machine” to mean an assembly of word and code components that carry out tasks (e.g. finding and displaying pertinent collections of product options) to support human creativity. Different components are selected to assemble specific machines for specific tasks. I accept that the term “digital” is often used to describe a mechanical machine with digital controls, so I will attempt to find another term – any suggestions welcome.